Ship’s Boat by JSGerson - FINISHED - Model Shipways

[JSGerson]

The Sheer Line

The sheer line is made of 1/16” x 1/16” basswood. I debated whether to substitute teak for that or not and decided it would be easier to bend the basswood. I could always stain it to add an accent to the look of the boat if I didn’t like the way it looked against the teak. Because the plans are the same of all sizes of the kit, the plans were reduced to match the size of my kit. The basswood was soaked for a day and pre-bent using a copy of the reduced plans to pin and bend the wood.

[JSGerson]

Once the wood was bent and dry, it was dry fitted. Here it was discovered that again, either the instructions were not clear or the parts did not match the plans. All of the ribs had notches in the keel, the stem bulkhead did not. This created a disconnect as to how the planking would flow over it. The bulkhead also seemed too narrow so I tried to beef it up by adding more basswood. Even then it appears that I will have to use some wood filler to fill in some of the open gaps.

 

The first sheer line was glued in place with WeldBond at the bow. It will be completed when it is glued to all the remaining ribs and the transom. Of course this will be repeated for the other side.

[scott larkins]

That's going to be a nice touch to the build.

[JSGerson]

Between now and my last post a lot has happened and I have really nothing to show for it. After the sheer rails were glued in place, I ripped them out because I found gaps between the ribs and the rail; which you can’t see in the pictures. Not good; I did it over.

[JSGerson]

Using the proportion method of planking I laid out the planking marks and added two planks to each side next to the rail on each side and ripped them out. I didn't like the way they looked. 

[JSGerson]

I didn’t like the way the basswood sheer rails looked next to the teak planks so I decided to add an accent to the boat to complement the mother ship Rattlesnake by painting them black. 

[JSGerson]

The two planks next to the sheer rails were reinstalled. Additionally I installed the garboard planks and the planks next to it but not until I did that twice. It’s not perfect, but it’ll do. All of this was going on while I had my problems with the Rattlesnake’s mast tops (see log). Boy, was I having fun!

[themadchemist]

This is an interesting little kit and fun to mess around with and modify.

 

I  really like the teak and the black accent, Its going to look really nice.

[robnbill]

I love the work you are doing on this. Once I get my cannons and spars done the ship boats are next on the to do list. 

[JSGerson]

It’s been a while since my last post, but progress has been made. Slowly I applied the planks, removed them and applied them again trying to keep the fine gaps between the planks at a minimum.  Due to their thinness, the planks have a tendency to bow between the ribs. It would have been a lot easier to plank had there been more ribs.

[JSGerson]

These final shots of the boat show the raw planking complete. The last shot, the boat has been removed from the building jig. The outside has had a preliminary sanding. The planks still hang over the stern and the interior desperately needs to have excess glue removed and sanded. No treatment to the wood surface has been applied yet.

[Martin W]

Nicely done, Jon.  This clearly required some patience, but you seem to have learned plenty from working it all out. 

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[spud1]

Any trouble taking the boat out of the form?  Looks real good.

[JSGerson]

Spud1 - There was no real problem removing the hull from the jig. The only thing holding it down were the ribs which extended into and were glued to the jig. Since they were basswood, they were easy to cut. There was one causality, the rudder post. Because the keel included both the stem and the rudder post, the grain of the wood ran horizontal at these points. Because of this, all one had to do was was breath on the rubber post and it would snap off, which it did. I will discuss all of this in my next post.

[JSGerson]

The excess planking was removed at the stern, but in the process the unsupported stem post above the hull broke off. That was because the grain of the wood was horizontal so it had no strength. A sneeze could have knocked it off so it wasn’t unexpected. If the stem post had been constructed like a real boat, the grain would have been vertical but because this was a very cheap kit (I paid $5.00 on sale, otherwise $8.00) a lot of detail was spared. I will address this later.

 

The light colored basswood ribs and keel looked like tan lines against the darker Teak so I stained them with Early American 230 Minwax Wood Finish (what else?) to match the Teak.

[JSGerson]

You will notice that the pre-cut bow bulkhead was too small and I had to beef it up during planking so it was not a pretty sight.

[JSGerson]

Using the Teak planking I made for the hull, a new bulkhead was veneered over the original. The same was done to the transom to match.

Edited March 29, 2014 by JSGerson

[JSGerson]

Following the kit plans, additional ribbing was added. The ribs were made of the kit’s basswood but not the bass designated for it. Instead I used the unused planking material which was half the intended thickness. Two pieces were cut to size, soaked, bent, and laminated together. The bending was much easier that the original ribs on the building jig. They were glued to the inside of the hull, trimmed, and stained. The whole hull was then coated with Wipe-on Poly.

[themadchemist]

She's a small bugger to work with. The stain matched really well and very little of the framing will show once the inside is fitted out anyway.

She's a great looking little masterpiece. Its amazing how much you learn along the way due to working on such a small size. I can't wait to see how you progress.

[Martin W]

I like your technique of laminating pieces together for the ribs.  That would certainly seem to solve the problem of basswood crimping.

 

Well done,

 

Martin

[scott larkins]

LOL, I like the boat cradle you are using there.

[JSGerson]

Basswood planking stock was added as the interior floor boards and for a change, there were no hassles. I left this basswood as well as the other basswood in the interior unstained to provide a contrast between the interior and the exterior of the boat.

 

[JSGerson]

At this point I decided that the exterior still needed something, so I added a piece of unstained 1/32” x 1/32” basswood right up against the sheer plank. It did two things. First it added a little snap to the boat. I had seen other small boats with similar structures. Second, it covered up small gaps between the planking and the sheer plank. The basswood piece was cut from the 1/32” x 3/32” basswood planking stock that came with the kit. I actually made two strips from one plank!  Boy, I love that Byrne’s saw!

[JSGerson]

It seemed to me that all ship’s boats are basically the same at this stage of the build. Looking at all of my 46 Rattlesnake models images that I have collected from the internet, I selected the ones with clear/detailed images of the ship’s boat. Not one of them duplicated any other’s boat. Everyone was different. That meant I had free rein as to what mine was going to look like. Taking elements from the kit itself, the Practicum, other boats on or off the Rattlesnake, and reference books, I came up with my version.

 

Like most boats, I created a backseat with two side seats. Some of the models I had seen had a lid over the back seat so I thought that would be neat to have. The lid was simply etched into the wood. Additionally I added a mast block (my own design since I didn’t have much to go on) and some brass rings fore and aft colored black with a Sharpie pen.

[JSGerson]

The seat pieces were cut and trimmed to fit and glued into place. The “hinges” are nothing more than pieces of black paper that were added when I Poly-wiped the wood. The remainder of the thwarts (seats) were supported by the risers (support strips). The forward thwart had a half round notch cut out for an optional mast.

Edited April 3, 2014 by JSGerson

[themadchemist]

She's filling out beautifully, Isn't it amazing how quickly they change appearance at this stage? The wale trim really looks good and gives the wale an added detail that really enhances her looks. The mast step and rings are also some nice added detail.

[JSGerson]

I noticed on many models, that the thwarts had little braces (knees) securing them to the hull so I added those. I tried to round the corners, but they were so tiny I could barely hold them steady, let alone file them. As it turned out in the end, you can hardly see them.

[JSGerson]

The top rail was made using a template traced from the model. If I had made the model perfect it would have matched the plans and I could have just cut the template directly from them. Since it wasn’t, I couldn’t. Each side template had to be cut in two places to create the splines for the three pieces of 1/32” x 3/32” Teakwood to accommodate the boat’s curve. The top of the transom was ¼”.

[JSGerson]

These were glued in place, trimmed and sanded.

[JSGerson]

The bow was covered with teak plank.