Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack by Kenchington - Model Shipways - 1:24

[Kenchington]

Steps 10 & 11 completed: Garboards in!

 

The three-layered spine of the model has only its outer layers full-length, the central layer being broken for the centreboard and the rudder shaft. However, only the central layer reaches down to the bottom of the keel, forward to the cutwater and aft to the outer edge of the sternpost. The corresponding parts of the outer spine layers get added in Step 10 of the instructions, leaving a narrow gap which serves as the rabbets for the planks.

 

Each of starboard and port, there are three pieces, forming the edges of stem, keel and post respectively. There is also a plank-thick spacer piece to help check that the rabbet is properly sized. All that went together very easily, except that dry-fitting the keel pieces showed that one bulkhead needed more fairing to create enough space for the garboards. While doing that, I thought of another check: I traced the edge of a bulkhead onto a piece of card held against the spine, cut around my pencil line, reversed the card and checked the other side of the bulkhead for symmetry. Several of the bulkheads are too encumbered with bits and pieces for that to work, while asymmetry amidships won't be very noticeable. But I did check Bulkheads 1, 2, 3 and 8, finding that they were all so close to symmetrical that I could not be sure to find the deviations.

 

With that, it was time to get out and clean up the garboards, give each one 5 minutes in freshly boiled water and then shape it into place. I have noted before that this kit has the challenges of being of single-plank construction and having some complex curves. On the positive side, David Antscherl has done all of the laying out and splining for us, so the task should mostly be simple fitting of laser-cut pieces.

 

The starboard garboard certainly went on very easily and smoothly, so I added the port one and allowed them to dry together:

 

They have to take up a very pronounced twist in the run:

but the wet basswood is forgiving and took the required shape without trouble. Both garboards then fell into place almost naturally, with glue to keep them there:

The forward end of one garboard did rise a little in its rabbet but not enough to be worth ungluing. Also, one of the planks rose a bit free of one bulkhead and needed gluing back down, with a rubber band and Lego blocks to maintain pressure. Otherwise, all was well and the shape of the garboards is lovely -- a credit to David's planking skills more than to my fitting of the pieces.

 

No photographs yet, but I have pressed ahead and have the next strake drying overnight, ready for proper fitting in the morning.

 

Trevor

 

Trevor

[Kenchington]

Step 12: Strake 1 (first above the garboard) fitted.

 

Planking proceeded as smoothly as yesterday, with Strake 1 (which had dried overnight) going into place without much problem. I used a dab of yellow glue on each bulkhead, white glue in the rabbets and between the strakes. I started by fitting the forward end (as per the instructions), reaching back across three bulkheads and held by finger pressure without clamps. Then I did the length across two more bulkheads and then another two, before trimming the after end of the plank to meet the sternpost rabbet. Finally glued to Bulkhead 8 and the rabbet, then repeated on the other side of the hull:

I also trimmed and re-shaped the centreboard (see the angle cut off, tucked in the corner of the above image). Perhaps because of the way I fixed the issue of the pivot position and the slot of the control rod, the board did not fully retract into its trunk. That is not really an issue for a model but it would be annoying in the full-size boat, as a protruding centreboard would mean that she couldn't be easily hauled ashore for maintenance. (At the least, it would need blocks placed to keep the weight off the board.) I waited to do the trimming until I had the garboards in place to add support to the sides of the centreboard slot, but did the job before adding Strake 1. Retracting the board also meant that I could square up the bottom face off the keel.

 

The fit of the two strakes done so far isn't perfect, though nothing that a touch of filler in the rabbets and a gentle sanding elsewhere won't fix:

  

I am now giving the glue time to set thoroughly before wetting and fitting Strake 2. Hopefully, I will get that dry and glued on with time enough to have Strake 3 shaped and drying overnight.

 

Trevor

 

 

[Waldemar]

On 11/8/2025 at 3:29 PM, Kenchington said:

For anyone wanting similar success when pressing kit parts together ...

 

Just get a couple of friendly hippos to stand on them 😀

 

 

I was just looking through your presentation and, strangely, came across part of my collection at your place . But seriously, I have to protect my hippos collection like the apple of my eye, because every now and then someone wants one of them as a gift. I explain that it's a sort of collection and that's what gives it its added value, but I can see that this doesn't stop them from being disappointed by being refused... 

 

 

 

[Kenchington]

My hippos came from my wife, who picked them up while at a business meeting in Namibia. I'm not sure why she rejected them (too much potamous and not enough hippo for a horsewoman?) but they passed to my shelves instead.

 

If you and I ever get to meet in person, they can migrate to join your herd. I dare say they would welcome the company of their own kind!

 

Trevor

[Kenchington]

Strake 2 in place now. For its drying, I added pegs to keep it even with the edge of Strake 1, in addition to the clips on the bulkheads that hold the two strakes together:

That seemed to help the final fit, so I am learning as I go! It will still need filler and sanding, and I will have to do better when I get to the NRG half-hull, but all should be fine for this little sloop once painted.

 

With three strakes in place, the model can sit on its stand, so it is beginning to show its final shape:

I may have over-done the extra height in those pillars but they could readily be shortened, if that looks desirable in the end.

 

Two things I would have done differently, if I had known in time:

 

First, Bulkhead 1 is too full down near the keel. It's not so bad as to be noticeable without a close look but the planks leave the stem at a wide angle, then bend too sharply as they pass the bulkhead. A bit more removal of material during fairing would give the hull a sweeter line near its forefoot. Still, nothing to worry about:

A more important point, for any future builder of the kit wanting to learn from my mistakes:

 

The instructions call for the garboard to be fitted starting at the stem and working aft, whereas Strake 3 is to be fitted around the sternpost and then working forwards. Both make every sense but I continued the stem-to-stern route for Strakes 1 & 2. For Strake 1, that was probably OK. However, Strake 2 needs a curved hood end, to match the shape of the rabbet in the sternpost and that would have much better been done before working forwards. As it is, I have a mess to hide with filler -- not so bad on the starboard side:

but worse to port. Nothing that can't be fixed but I would prefer to have got it right the first time!

 

I have pressed on as fast as soaking Strake 3 and clamping both starboard and port sides to the hull for drying. However, they will need trimming to fit against the centreline plank abaft the rudder port and I fear that they will need re-wetting and a second drying before gluing. I'll likely only be able to get that one strake on tomorrow.

 

And then I hit an odd problem: I had fit the centreboard control rod as the deck went on, figuring that the narrow slot between the deck halves would keep the rod in place in its hole in the board. But, as I twisted and turned, fitting Strake 3 for drying, the rod fell out 😧

 

It was not hard to fit it again, with only three strakes then in place on the port side, but I will have to add a bit of scrap between two bulkheads to prevent it coming loose again. That is for tomorrow.

 

Trevor

 

[druxey]

On most models, as in full size practice, the strake consists of more than one plank, so you can work from both the bow and stern post. The continuous strake is one limitation of this kit.

[Kenchington]

Limitation or challenge? It is all a learning experience, after all!

 

Anyway, we get to work with easily bent basswood (not pine, let alone oak), and the hood ends don't need to have strong, watertight seating in the rabbets. For me, this is a first opportunity to see a carvel-construction hull come together -- something I have read about for decades (and sometimes written about too) but never had happen under my own hands. I'm not complaining about the challenges!

 

Trevor

[Kenchington]

Added Strake 5 this morning. With the garboard, that makes a total of 6 out of the 11 strakes, so I am half-way through the planking and beginning get tidy outcomes. One unwanted hollow has emerged immediately abaft the sternpost, whether because I faired Bulkhead 9 badly or as a result of my having to reconstruct the model's skeleton in that area following damage, I cannot tell. That aside, it has been remarkable how easily everything has fallen into place, with only minor errors on my part. The strake edges are falling a little short of the tick marks on the bulkheads but consistently so. The kit is designed with extra width in the steerstrake. I can only hope that it will be wide enough!

 

No images from today's work yet but I do want to illustrate two points that I made earlier. First, the excess fullness of Bulkhead 1, low down towards the keel:

Note the curvature as the strakes cross the bulkhead, causing them to meet the stem at a blunter angle than the deck does, whereas they should be sharper if anything. It is not a problem seen with the higher strakes.

 

On the positive side, the spiling of the kit's planks is almost unbelievably well done. Consider Strake 3. That came out of the fourth space in this basswood sheet (the one with the little notch for the sternpost, in the strake's bottom-right corner):

A nice, smooth, flat curve, albeit of varying width. Yet, once bent and glued in place, it looks like:

 

That's an S-bend in side view, superimposed on a twist of about 45°! My attempt to construct it in 3D will need some filler to hide the mistakes but the fact that I could make it at all comes down to the quality of the kit. And that's all to the credit of David A. and his spiling. Wow!

 

Trevor

 

[Kenchington]

With Strake 5 in place, she looked like:

 

Since that stage, I have added Strake 6 and have Strake 7 drying overnight. This beginning to feel like a routine, while probably means that I am about to make a major, silly mistake!

 

Progress may slow down from here as I do not have enough small spring clamps to handle the planks on both sides at the same time.

 

Trevor

[Kenchington]

Progress did not slow today, to my surprise, and Strake 8 is in place. I hope to have Strake 9 bent and drying overnight, though that's not done yet.

 

However, I did have a major problem, from a silly mistake: I had cleaned the char off the port-side Strake 8 and was giving its flat faces a quick wipe with a very fine-grade sanding stick -- when a third of its length simply broke away and shot to the floor! I can't see a weakness in the wood, so I must have become too casual and pressed too hard.

 

My first thought was a repair, with a butt strap for strength, but that would have made a hard point, altering the bend of the strake. So I made a new one from scrap, using the original strake's slot in the basswood sheet as a template, then cutting and sanding. I clamped the broken parts to the new and sanded until their edges were flush, then finished by ensuring that the new piece matched the starboard-side strake. (I figured that an exact match, starboard to port, was more critical than an exact match to the kit's spiling, though any deviation was very small anyway.)

 

So planking continues, as does the emergence of a hollow between Bulkheads 8 and 9, either side of the sternpost. I'm blaming that on the need to re-attach the snapped-off after skeleton, though insufficient fairing of Bulkhead 8 may have contributed.

 

More tomorrow,

 

Trevor

[Kenchington]

Planking completed -- though it did not go easily.

 

My progress was slowed more by a sudden deadline (as in: a deadline for the work I get paid to do 😖), more than by the challenges of the model. Still, I did move ahead and Strake 9 went on well enough, though a slight slip at the transom  induced me to release the glue and try again. That only made things worse.

 

The big problem came when I checked the gap between Strake 9 and the deck. As I had begin to fear, it was wider than the kit's sheerstrakes, especially on the port side, where the sheerstrake was a bit more than 2mm too narrow amidships. That should not have been possible, especially as the kit is designed to allow some excess material. I can only guess that I pressed the wet strakes together so tightly (while they were clamped for drying) that I squashed them a little.

 

I bent the kit-supplied sheerstrakes anyway and toyed with the idea of adding a thin band between them and Strake 9. That looked like it would lead to an ugly mess, so I decided to make new, wider strakes, with the cut-out of the kit part as a template. While I was at it, I made them much wider (rather than find them not wide enough) and added some length too, as my muddled stern projects a bit further than intended. Even the standard parts are too wide and too long to get replacements out of any scrap left from the kit nut, back while working on the dory and pram, I had bought a length of ModelExpo 1/32 basswood sheet just in case a need arose, so I could use that.

 

All went OK though to the shaping and drying phase:

That's the kit-supplied sheerstrake in the foreground and my replacement on the hull (though set low, to prevent the rubber bands from warping the top of the strake). It was only with the new wood wet that I saw how different it is from the kit material: Much coarser grain and prominent rays.

 

With the sheerstrakes bent and dried, I confronted issues that the instructions skip over. The stem rabbet does not follow the profile of the stem but has a sharp turn to vertical where the hood end of the sheerstrake fits. The deck, however, carries on past to meet the stem where the rabbet would be if there was no angle. I trimmed the deck, then shaped the end of each sheerstrake, mostly by trial and error.

 

I was also unhappy with the fit of the sheerstrakes far aft, so I glued them in place from bow to midships, left the model for the glue to fully set, then got to work with a rasp -- mostly waiting Bulkhead 9 but also the lower edge of the starboard sheerstrake. Perhaps I should have re-wetted the strakes but I managed to get everything glued in place, even though it needed a second go with glue in a couple of places.

 

All of that left me with a fully-planked model but certainly not a nicely planked one. The sheerstrakes projected above the deck, as I had intended:

but worse was the general mess that I had made of the job:

I am still hopeful that I can make an acceptable end result, with plenty of filling and sanding, but it is not what I was hoping for! (Just have to keep reminding myself that this is supposed to be a learning experience 🙂)

 

I decided to trim the projecting plank, before I caught it on something and caused damage. With plane and sanding stick, I brought the sheerstrakes down flush with the deck edge, then turned to saw and again sanding sticks to get the after ends of the planking flush to the transom. With that, the current state of development looks like:

 

 

Much, much more to be done but it will have to wait until tomorrow!

 

Trevor

[JacquesCousteau]

Looks good to me! I feel like with a bit of filler and sanding it should smooth out nicely. Challenges with the sheer strake aside, the kit planks seem to go together very nicely. I almost regret going with lapstrake planking on mine, as it has made what I was hoping would be a straightforward, fairly simple build into something rather more complex.

 

As for the more prominent grain on the sheer strake, I wonder if a bit of shellac or some other sort of sanding sealer would smooth it out? (I seem to remember that you're planning on painting this hull, I could be wrong though). I recently tried shellac for the first time on a different project and was pleasantly surprised by how smooth it turned out and how straightforward it was to apply, and apparently it takes paint very well.

[Ferrus Manus]

1 hour ago, Kenchington said:

All of that left me with a fully-planked model but certainly not a nicely planked one.

I just popped in on this build log, but I have to disagree and say that this is one of the better plank jobs I've seen on this kit. Keep up the good work! 

Keep in mind that these were work boats, and they wouldn't have looked nice anyway. People love to model them as yachts, which is how many of the real boats have been restored as. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Ferrus Manus

[Kenchington]

Thank you both for your kind comments!

 

Workboat, yes. So the strakes should be evident as strakes, but without a step between one and the next -- each section essentially a series of flats, whereas the outer faces of a yachts planks would more likely be shaped to a curve, to make a smooth surface. Still, I do need to reduce the steps between some of the strakes.

 

JC: I am not (so far) worried about the surface finish of the sheerstrake. Maybe that will cause me some grief but I'm expecting sanding and priming to be enough.

 

Trevor