21ft English Pinnace by Mike Y - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:24

[Keith_W]

Ingenious method for placing the treenails. When I treenailed my boat, I drilled the treenails out from inside. Very tricky work - I had to remember to keep my drill 90deg to the wood at all times, otherwise the outside hole would be uneven! Your treenails are beautiful!

 

My boat is constructed of the same basswood as yours. I found that dry sanding with successively finer grades was enough to produce a good finish.

[Mike Y]

Amfibius, thanks for advice!

By the way, what was the benefit of treenailing from inside?

[Keith_W]

I don't treenail from the inside ... I drill from the inside! I inserted the treenails from the outside. The inside of the boat is visible, so I wanted my treenails to go all the way through. I also cut my treenails flush as I go along and wipe off excess glue. I used white glue with some wood stain, thinned with a tiny bit of water. I didn't want the stain to linger around and stain the planks, so I wiped it off. If you look at my Bounty Launch build log, you can see the effect of the darkened glue - the treenails have a little ring around them. Gives better definition IMHO.

[Mike Y]

Checked it - yes, yours is a much better way of making a treenails. But a much trickier one, especially on my size, not sure how can I drill with that angle..

Added your method into bookmarks!

[Mike Y]

Experimented with different stains. Found a terrible problem - basswood expands when it soaks the stain. Wood is warped and there are big gaps when it dries. Luckily it was just a scrap piece.

What to do? Avoid staining basswood at all? I used quite a few drops of stain on a brush, to keep the moisture level as low as possible. But is just soaks the liquid and expands.

Or there is some trick?

Edited February 8, 2014 by Mike Y

[mtaylor]

Mike,

 

Try some sanding sealer first.

[Keith_W]

Mike, stains are meant to be wiped on, not brushed on. You can try this: fold a piece of gauze over itself several times until it is quite compact, then clamp it with a hemostat. Then use a syringe or pipette and drop some stain on the gauze. Wipe the gauze on your boat, then reload. 

[Mike Y]

Oh, I am such a newbie in anything that is related to paints! Thanks, Amfibius, will try now

Edited February 9, 2014 by Mike Y

[Mike Y]

Finished treenailing and sanding. Sanded with 240 -> 600 -> 1200 grits, the result is kind of smooth (if you can say that about that wood).

The stains here are not glue or dirt, it is really such wood first and last experience with cheap wood for planking.
But luckily my staining experiments show that stain will smoothen the wood color a bit.

Also planked the transom:


Now the most tricky part - painting. If I do it wrong - whole build is trashed and will deserve a good old viking funeral!

Edited February 10, 2014 by Mike Y

[Mike Y]

Applied stain. Hat tip Amfibius, with wipe on method it's much better:

 

Some spots on a bow do not soak any stain. I tried to scratch and gently sand them to "open" fibers, but no luck.

 

Then added a coat of a wipe-on poly. Reflections are not as strong in real life, it's just a lamp that I use when taking photos

 

Whole staining experience confirmed that the best stain is no stain, good wood do not require any staining, just a gentle cover of a poly.

 

Now looking forward to inner hull sanding!

 

Also ordered boxwood longboat, will do the next build better then this one

Edited February 11, 2014 by Mike Y

[Blue Ensign]

Like what you've done with the Pinnace Mike.

 

Cheers,

 

B.E.

[Mike Y]

Thanks B.E.!

[Keith_W]

Well done Mike, she looks spectacular! Love the treenailing!

[BRiddoch]

Looks great.

 

    Bob R.

[Chuck]

Lovely...well done. 

[Mike Y]

Thanks a lot for a warm words It is very inspiring!

[Stuntflyer]

Mike, add one more "well done!" from me.

 

I did some tests with stain and found that lightly applying the stain onto the basswood using gauze, as suggested, works quite well. Before staining I finish sanded the wood with 400 TRI-MITE sandpaper. The trick to getting the stain on evenly (at least for me) was to candle the test pieces, making sure that the wood was sanded consistent in sheen thereby showing no low spots. Hope this helps. Mike

Edited February 12, 2014 by Stuntflyer

[Mike Y]

Important milestone achieved - removed frame centers:

 

Frames are quite thick, not sure why. Manual says that they should be later sanded down. Probably they would be too fragile otherwise

 

After sanding, looks quite neat:

 

Hull is extremely light, it feels like an egg shell. Just 20gr (0.705oz)!

 

Amount of sanding required really reminds me on an old anecdote about Japanese spies stealing blueprints of Soviet jet fighter, which looked more like a steam locomotive after assembling. There was a small fine print in the manual - sand down some material to shape it like a jet fighter....

Edited February 15, 2014 by Mike Y

[Mike Y]

Btw, there is a real shortage of a wide planks for floor and platform on the back of the ship. I used one of them for a hull gap plank, as advised, and there were just 4 planks remaining. While you need around 5 at least!

 

Also, while planning the next steps, found some mysterious Extra Details. Spent 30min re-reading whole manual, cant find what that could be. It is thick and, probably, should be mounted on a keel. Chuck, could you please give a hint, that are these pieces for?

Two right ones on this sheet of laser cut details:

Edited February 15, 2014 by Mike Y

[Chuck]

Well done sir!!!

 

Those are just some stands for the hull.  If you glue them to a scrap board it will keep your hull upright so you can work on the interior details.   I found myself just holding the hull in my hands most of the time but I figured what the heck....why not throw them in there anyway.

 

You did a really nice job sanding down the interior frames.  There area  few details I omitted from the kit but if you are up to the challenge I can explain what they are.

 

Under each seat in the cockpit there should be a panelled support...but that is a really experienced little doo-dad on each side to build.  they couldnt be laser cut because there are too many variables depending on how well the inside was sanded down and where the risers were placed.  So I just left them out of the kit for simplicity.   But if you are up to it...give it a shot.  see this image for an example.  But not all small pinnaces had them.  In fact the small pinnace the kit was based on did not have one as you can see by the second photo below.  This first photo is a larger more impressive Admirals Barge.    But some smaller pinnaces did have the panels under those seats as well.

 

 

 

In addition...On the fore side of the seat back there should be a panel as well.   Again this would be quite a challenge to make the fancy molding for and keep it thin so it doesnt look bulky.  I decided to leave the feature off the pinnace kit for simplicity as well.   Once again it could not be laser cut because there are too many variables.   The depth of the seatback and the width would change for every model built depending on how well the interior was sanded and where the risers were placed.  It is also difficult to bend the top of the panel if it wasnt laser cut.  This is another challenge I have yet to see anyone add to the model.  Note that the panel outline is let-into the seatback.

 

See below.

 

 

 

The last detail I omitted was the long boards down the center of the hull between the thwarts.  They only appear between the two aft-most thwarts.   They are also let-in to each thwart which could get tricky for some folks.   

 

Also note how thin and elegant the cap rail is.   If you can get the tops of the frames inboard sanded down even thinner you may be able to achieve the same results.   Most often they are left too thick and it begins to look very clunky and heavy.     But yes....the hull is very light but surprisingly strong at this point so dont be afraid to try it.    Once the panels and thwarts are in position the whole thing gets really rigid and strong.  Just be careful with it until then.

 

Thats it for the stuff I omitted but they remain optional at any rate.

 

Chuck

[Mike Y]

Wow! Chuck, thanks for all that ideas! Sounds interesting, will try it. Will probably leave frames as is, they look quite good in sqaure profile, would look worse if "flattened". But the cap rail will be as thin as possible!

Curved molding for backseat would be a challenge with that ultra soft wood, but will try it

[Chuck]

i wouldnt try and bend it it...better to cut it from a wider sheet....but you are doing an outstanding job.

 

Chuck

[Blue Ensign]

Those frames look impressive Mike, well done   and thanks Chuck for your additional insights and photos.

 

B.E.

[Mike Y]

Glued floors, stained inboard and covered it with poly. Not very accurate though.

[malmoerik]

Cool Mike! Haven't checked in for quite a while. Tree nails look especially nice. Impressed!

[Stuntflyer]

Mike, I'm getting ready to treenail the Longboat. Did you drill the treenail holes by hand or use power? I have bits from Drill City and they tend to screw in if I try doing it by hand.

Edited February 21, 2014 by Stuntflyer

[Mike Y]

Drilled the holes with dremel. In hindsight, I should have done better job marking holes for treenails, they are no properly aligned into straight lines. But dremel is quite suitable for such drilling. I really want to use something lighter then dremel, but it would be just nice to have.

[Stuntflyer]

Dremel sounds like a good way to go. Perhaps a little bulky and hard to get close to the hull when drilling so I ordered this from Ebay. Dremel 225-01 36" Flexible Flex Shaft Rotary Tool Attachment. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370943910461&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160

Edited March 3, 2014 by Stuntflyer

[Mike Y]

Had no time to model for a month, but now finally back to the bench!

 

Installed the risers, it required a better fairing of the frames, and I was not risking to clamp them while glueing.

Here comes the nasty part - painting. I truly hate it, my painting skill suck and the whole procedure is extremely risky. That is why I always opt to natural wood color, maybe a bit of stain But this model have a rich red color which adds a style, so there is no choice.

I used Galeria Acrylic Crimson paint, same as Chuck. Results are quite ok in places where you can wipe away unnecessary paint with a cloth:

 

But I totally failed in an area with problematic access, like transom. Well, that would be an experience...

 

Maybe I should have mixed it with water, to make paint more liquid?

[Mike Y]

Also found an old boat (real boat) that is being restored, look how thin the frames are! I didn't know that they could be that thin. It's just some sticks!