Armed Virginia Sloop by grayarea - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:48 - First Wood Ship Build

[grayarea]

It's been a long time since I've posted, but I'm still here and still making progress. I did get lazy with photos, so I don't have much to show. And the boat is pretty unphotogenic at the moment. 

I finished planking in March, and spent April/May on the ceiling work, main rails, etc. 

Then I took a cue from Gunther's beautiful build and did some painting - the red ceiling, black rails and ochre/black/blue hull details above the black strake. I regret having taken this step though; the paint is so fragile and the area were I work is in the basement – always dusty and damp at this time of year. So keeping the paint job clean became a full-time job. I should have just gone on to the deck before painting. 

Right now, it's all masked up to keep the paint safe, so there isn't much to see. 

The deck will be done with pear wood because of its characteristics – light in color, medium-hard, fine-grained and keeps a good edge. Unfortunately, I need to go back and order some wider strips for the nibbing so the deck is on hold for a couple more weeks. 

Meanwhile, I've started in on the deck furniture – and have exactly one photo to post: Galley hatch.

 

Edited August 1, 2015 by grayarea

[GuntherMT]

Holy crap, it lives!  

 

Good to see you back, I look forward to seeing how the pear works for the deck planking.  I imagine it should be very nice, I've never read a bad word about pear in ship modeling.

The galley hatch looks good, you got the grating right, where I screwed up my first one and had to remake it thanks to sharp eyes here on the forum letting me know I'd done it wrong.

 

Hope your next update doesn't take nearly as long as this one did.  

[GuntherMT]

hello guys,hopefully mine is correct 

 

You did yours the same way I did my first one.  Notice how Grayarea's grating has a solid edge (or border) of grating material all the way around inside the frame, and yours has no 'border'?  It was pointed out to me when I did mine the way that yours is, that it was incorrect, and should have been done the way Grayarea's is. 

 

Assuming your kit has the same materials as mine did, there is sufficient grating material to re-make that one without any problem.

 

Edit - You can see in this post in my log how I made mine the same way yours is made the first time - http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8085-armed-virginia-sloop-by-gunthermt-model-shipways-scale-148/?p=288772

 

If you read the feedback following that post you'll see what I was told, and then this post is where I re-did it - http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8085-armed-virginia-sloop-by-gunthermt-model-shipways-scale-148/?p=289602

 

If it's good to your eye though, then it's good!

Edited August 1, 2015 by GuntherMT

[grayarea]

You did yours the same way I did my first one.  Notice how Grayarea's grating has a solid edge (or border) of grating material all the way around inside the frame, and yours has no 'border'?  It was pointed out to me when I did mine the way that yours is, that it was incorrect, and should have been done the way Grayarea's is. 

 

I consider myself fortunate only now for the experience when I was a kid of having to clean and oil several teak grates like this on an old wooden boat. It was not a fun job; each square hole had to be chemically cleaned using a bottle brush, and then oiled. It took most of a hot summer day, but it gave me ample time to get to know the construction - useful now for the first time. 40 years later.

[grayarea]

Here's the rest of my deck furniture. The main cabin hatch looks so simple in the drawings; but what a bugger. I had to rebuild various parts of it several times before I was happy with it. Of course I still see all the imperfections, but I'm proud of the way it came out. 

I had a bad piece of walnut, which I needed to use when I rebuilt the coaming (the original somehow came out a little too small). The grain is really large and rough – more so than on the other coamings – and it gave me fits. But I think it will be fine once installed.

 

 

I followed the lead of a couple other folks here, and painted the brass handles for the cargo hatch and scuttle to look like iron. I like the effect, but I also really like the brass look. So I have mixed metals on the hardware. I wish I'd stuck with all brass, but I'm going to leave it like this.

 

 

That chip in the corner of the scuttle was a bad piece of grain that decided to give up and fall off at the very end of my work. I'll probably go back and replace it before all is said and done.

 

 

I've been going at this pretty heavily the last few weeks. I'm going to take a little bit of a break. I'm waiting for a piece of pear wood that I needed for the nibbing on the deck. When it arrives, I'll slowly make my way into planking the deck.

Edited August 12, 2015 by grayarea

[grayarea]

You're too quick for me up there is Saskatoon. I was uploading the pictures as your wrote. But thanks for hanging on my every word. 

[GuntherMT]

Looking good!

 

The brass vs. iron thing is really something that is all about your personal taste I think.  I did brass on the Carmen, and I'm doing all black iron on the AVS, although I'm using chemically blackened brass rather than painting as much as I can.

[grayarea]

Looking good!

 

The brass vs. iron thing is really something that is all about your personal taste I think.  I did brass on the Carmen, and I'm doing all black iron on the AVS, although I'm using chemically blackened brass rather than painting as much as I can.

Brian, do you blacken the brass yourself or do you buy it? If you do it yourself, what do you use? Because the hardware that holds the cannons ought to be iron. I don't think brass would be strong enough.

[GuntherMT]

I started using a product called "Blacken-It", which worked well, but apparently is no longer available as the company went out of business and I've been unable to locate any more.

 

I then used some Birchwood Casey "Brass Black" which works pretty good on brass, but doesn't touch the cast metal or solder, so it's not an ideal solution depending on what parts you need blackened.  For eye-bolts and such it's fine, and it's readily available.

 

I tried Liver of Sulphur, and it didn't work at all.

 

I am going to try some products by a company called JAX Chemicals that come highly recommended by Frank (Mahuna here) and is supposed to blacken both the brass and solder without any problem, but I haven't gotten it yet.

[grayarea]

Thanks Brian. Very helpful.

[grayarea]

The piece of pear wood I had to order for the nibbing arrived, milled exactly to spec by the Lumberyard and costing just $6. I had ordered pear planking for the deck months ago, but forgot to get a piece wide enough for the nibbing at the bow.

 

So I began planking this week. It's been slow going, but not logistically too difficult. 

 

 

For caulk, I'm going with the simplest method of painting one edge of each plank in black. It gives a bit of a pinstripe look, and I feel like the caulk lines should be a little wider. But that's a lesson I'll apply on my second build.

 

 

I've got the nibbing fitted at the bow but it's not glued in. I'll cut in a nice joint and work on the next section of nibbing after putting in a couple more planks on each side. 

 

 

The plugs need to start going better. I'm having a hell of a time cutting them off without chiseling up the deck. After the first few planks, I started putting them in before gluing down the plank. That seems to be helping .

 

 

If anybody is curious about pear wood, it's really nice to work with. It's hard and holds an edge beautifully. It also has a really tight grain so you don't get any of those cavities or splinters like walnut. But it also cuts pretty easily for hardwood. And its got a bit of a gray tone that makes it a pretty good facsimile for teak. (I realize they probably didn't use teak on boats of this era; they would have used something easily found in North America. But to me, a wood deck is a teak deck.)

Edited September 4, 2015 by grayarea

[grayarea]

Finished with the deck and now working on the other details from Sheet 3 of the plans – binnacle, rudder, steering wheel, timberheads, etc. At the same time, I'm moving forward with painting the hull. 

 

Here's detail of the deck at the bow. I'm pleased with how it came out. The little dark piece at the forward edge of the scuttle hatch came from a different batch of pear wood than the rest of the deck. It's much less visible to the naked eye. The yellow spot just forward of that is I don't know what; can't even see it in real life. The deck is finished with Watco Danish Oil. I've never used it before but am looking for excuses to use it again. It's so easy and so pretty.

 

 

Here are some other views of the deck. The galley hatch is glued into place, but all of the other items are just placed for the photo and aren't yet affixed. Some of my coamings are a bit larger than spec; it's going to be crowded back behind the companionway where the bilge pumps go. 

 

 

The bilge pumps are also just placed for the photo. (That's not glue on the deck planks; it's natural grain - exaggerated by the camera.)

 

 

The cabin top is all walnut; my kit came with stock from 3 different batches – one dark, one yellow and one white. I intended to alternate the dark and yellow – starting from the center and working outboard. But I committed a rookie error; I didn't have enough yellow (which was really pulpy and unpleasant to work with anyway. So I switched to white. What I didn't realize until too late is that splitting the centerline with a yellow-and-dark pair (rather than placing a yellow plank on centerline) resulted in the pattern shifting to the right. So the whole thing looks off-center by one. It's going to bother me for eternity. And I mention it here only because I know what eagle eyes everyone has here. So yeah, I know.

Otherwise, I'm calling it a win. My heart wanted to finish the cabin top with varnish; my paintbrushes convinced me to go with water-soluble polyurethane. 

 

 

The red bulwarks and black rails have taken a beating from the environment of my workshop and the deck work. I've started giving those a new coat, along with the paint job on the rest of the hull. And I've taken to covering her loosely with plastic wrap to keep the new paint fresh.

 

 

Edited November 10, 2015 by grayarea

[GuntherMT]

Looking good!  The effect on the cabin top is quite striking, it worked out very well (even with your 'mistake').

 

But what's up with that big round silver hatch next to the scuttle?  

[DocBlake]

Nice work!  I think the  cabin roof turned out great.

[grayarea]

 

I've been working on 3 things simultaneously:

1) Painting the hull

2) The display stand

3) Cannons.

 

The painting is finished except for some touchup on the main rail and other black portions, and one more coat on the bottom. 

 

I'm pleased with the result. The gold stripe was a separate piece of wood, which I left a gap for above the wale. I didn't use the gold that came with the standard paint set because it didn't pop enough from the ochre section above. Instead, I used some gold leaf paint that's been sitting on the shelf for years. It was so old I struggled to get it open, but when I did, the contents were just fine.

 

 

I went with the ways-style stand. It's not quite finished here. I still have one hull support to add to each side, and then I'll need to ramp it to bring the waterline to level. But I'll take my time getting to that last step.

I aged the wood for the ways with the vinegar/steel wool formula. I'll give it a coat or two of flat tung oil to protect it.

 

 

The cannons took longer than I might have expected. I blackened them chemically rather than painting, but I'm not honestly sure it's better. The finish is more fragile than paint. 

 

 

I struggled most with the trunnion straps. I started with the brass strip provided in the model but it was both wider and thicker than necessary, and difficult to work with. I experimented with heavy paper and then aluminum foil. I finally settled on pewter foil meant for embossing - available at the art supply store. I used about 1 square inch of the stuff, so I have enough for a couple hundred builds.

 

It worked nicely - easy to cut with a razor blade, easy to bend around the tube I used for a form, and considerably thicker than aluminum foil, so it doesn't wrinkle and looks good to scale. I aged it in the same pewter black used on the cannons and the result is just right to my eye. The photo below shows the straps and also the fact that I still had some touchup painting to do on the loops/rings (which resist chemical blackening) and wheels.

 

I took my first stab at rope work with a breeching line. I've spliced full-size rope and whipped/seized hundreds of rope ends and splices. But I learned that I'm not at all set up yet for this work at such a small scale. My first attempt didn't get far. I'm headed back to Youtube to take a good look at how people manage to do the work of 3 hands in such a small space. I'll probably not think about it again for a few days. 

Edited December 30, 2015 by grayarea

[GuntherMT]

Looking good!

 

Interesting choice of material for the trunion straps, never would have occurred to me.  I used card stock and painted it black.

[grayarea]

Here's a closeup of a couple cannons after final touchup.

I'll start rigging them next.

Edited December 30, 2015 by grayarea

[DocBlake]

Nice progress.  Your paint job turned out great.  The tip about the pewter foil will be very useful.  Thanks!

[grayarea]

Self-employment and having one hobby too many has kept me largely out of the workshop. But I have been working on the block and tackle for the cannons.

I'm pleased with the way the first set has come out.

I put clear Danish Oil on the blocks, which yellowed them to just about the shade of the varnished blocks on the tall ship I got to crew on as a kid.

I plan to use rope strops for the rigging blocks – having iron-stropped blocks flying around aloft wouldn't be so desirable. But I thought iron could logically be used for the cannon, so it gave me a chance to try working with wire. It's 22 gauge alloy - I don't know what base metal – from the craft store. I like the way it blackened and am pleased with the results. I bent the hooks with my new round-nose jewelry pliers. 

 

I was also happy with the first shot at the ropework. I'm struggling to imagine how I'm going to build flemish coils on the deck without making a mess of things. I've practiced some coils, twirling them on an index card, with acceptable results. Lot's of room to improve though.

 

But I'm not sure how to coil them in this application - on the deck? Or in advance and hope I can get the placement right.

 

I'm also not at all satisfied with the workability of the line. My process is to singe off any loose threads, then run it through mineral spirits, then give it a good coat of beeswax. It looks great, and is more workable than off-the-spool. But not as workable as I'd like. Do I just need to recalibrate my expectations, or does anyone have a suggestion for a different way to prep the line?

 

The big disappointment came when I rigged the blocks. They are not the right scale; they're too big. I used the correct blocks from those supplied in the kit. But I'm now waiting to get some smaller ones by mail. 

 

I'm feeling in need of a success, so this weekend, I'll handle some of the other details from Page 3 of the plans. I still have to do the mounted guns, the anchors and all the cleats. That should keep me busy enough. 

Edited January 22, 2016 by grayarea

[Burroak]

Grayarea beautiful work!

 

Greg H.

[GuntherMT]

You did a good job given the materials in the kit, but unfortunately as you have discovered, the kit materials for rigging are pretty terrible.

 

For line preparation, I threw it all out and used line from Syren.  Same for the blocks, because as you said, they are completely and terribly out of scale.

 

For the coils on deck, I coiled mine in place using generous amounts of 50/50 white glue/water mixture, which both holds the coils in place, and allows them to be moved around until you are happy with placement.  Dab the extra off when everything is finalized, and let dry.  I think I try to describe how I did the coils in more detail in my log.

 

Good luck!

[grayarea]

The cannon breech lines represent the first ropework, and it's taken me awhile to get comfortable with this skill at any level. It's completely different form the woodwork, which I've really come to enjoy. 

But I am getting comfortable, finally. The trick was making the breech lines uniform, and I spent a lot of time screwing up before I figured out an incredibly simple jig to help.

The first complexity is that I decided to make the style that has an eye spliced into the center to fit over the cannon breech. I know it's also traditional to simply loop the line over the breech itself, which would have made this process easier. But I wasn't confident in my ability to get the line to run nicely when placing the cannons. I thought this style of breech line might be harder to create but easier to secure in place.

 

After making a breech line that satisfied me, I spread it out on a small piece of scrap wood and "pinned" it down by drilling small holes into the wood at the location of each splice in the rope, and then holding it with toothpicks. So the jig ended up looking like this.

Then I went about putting a splice into the end of prepped thread that would become the first half of the new breech line.

I pinned down that part of the line as shown below and then cut it off at more than half-way beyond the center point of the jig.

The I did the same with the other side of the new breech line.

With both sides pinned to the jig, I temporarily tied off the next splice points at the center. 

Then I took it out of the jig and whipped each of the center splices. The result is a set of six uniform breech lines that, by the time I was done, took about 25 minutes apiece to make. 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2016 by grayarea

[GuntherMT]

Nicely done, and great idea on how to pull them off!

[grayarea]

I have serious apprehension about getting the cannons onto the boat. I erred earlier by installing the rings on the bulwarks that will hokd the breech lines. I pulled those out and need to tough up that damage. Then I need to put the rings on the breech lines. I'm sure I'll be making my own fittings by then. I'm also concerned about messing up the deck while trying to get all the lines and Flemish coils to lay right. I'll muddle my way through it, and I haven't made any mistakes yet that I wasn't able to fix or cover up. But I'll be relieved when the cannons are done and I can move on.

[GuntherMT]

On the Flemish coils, as long as you are using thinned white glue (I used 50/50 water mix) you'll have plenty of time to work, and if you mess it up completely, it's easy to wipe everything off with a damp cloth and just start over later.  Really no worries about messing up the deck at all, you can do it as many times and for as long as you need until you are happy with it, then just dab off any excess and let it dry.

 

For a few of mine, I set a small glass paint jar on the coil for weight while it dried because the inside end didn't want to stay down by itself, the thinned white glue doesn't bind well to the glass as long as all the excess is dabbed off with a cloth first.

[grayarea]

Thanks for that. It calms me down. By the end of the weekend I'll have tried getting at least one of the cannons set. I still have to do the block and tackle but will probably do one gun at a time - just for the sake of variety.

Edited February 6, 2016 by grayarea

[GuntherMT]

Looks fine to me.  I made mine more difficult for myself, as I just left long tails on the tackle and created the coils on the deck in place with the same piece of rope from the tackle rather than the coils being a separate line like that.

[grayarea]

Zoltan,

Those are really nice flemish coils. Thank you for sharing. 

[grayarea]

Here's how I settled on making flemish coils. The challenge for me was having the bitter end of the coil at the center. I could wrap the coil OK from the outside, but in my former sailing life, whenever I made a flemish coil, I started with the bitter end and spun it so the coil built outward.

In miniature, I couldn't manage to get my coils started in the middle without the coil coming out elongated. 

I thought it would be so much easier if I could fashion a spool and make the coil by spinning it. 

For the hub of the spool, I used 1/16" (OD) brass tubing that I had around. I had to experiment how to lock the line in to place. I settled on cutting a notch into the tube; I inserted the bitter end of the line into the notch in the tube (easily done by wetting the very end with a bit of super-thin CA, and then cutting the tip of the hardened line on the bias).

For sides of the spool, I used squares of plastic (approx 1/2" square - cut to the squares on my cutting board) taken from clear plastic food containers like the kind you get with takeout soup. White glue won't adhere to them. I drilled a 1/16" hole at the center. 

I slide one side of the spool onto the hub, and carefully pass it over the notch; it tends to want to pull the line apart into its separate threads, so it takes a lot of care not to snag it. But with practice I can now get just to the other side of the notch so it locks in the thread. The closer I keep it to the edge of the notch, the less bitter end I'll have to cut off later. 

The I put on the other side. In the photo above, the second side goes on from the left-hand end. (At this point, you want the notch in the tubing out of play; all the action now happens on one side of the notch.) Then I glue up the line with diluted white glue, and gently wind it around the spool. 

I have to keep gentle pressure on the two sides, so the line does't double up on itself inside the spool. But it works pretty easily.

Then I clamp it to dry.

Removing the coil is just a process of carefully undoing everything in reverse order. I snip off the bitter end before removing the sides, so the coil doesn't get pulled apart. 

 

Some nuances: 1) The line has to be cut to length before starting; that's the nature of winding from the bitter end. 2) The glue takes a long time to dry, because it's sandwiched between 2 pieces of plastic. So I've got two spools and basically do two at a time and then leave them overnight. 3) I make sure to wind the same way every time so my coils will look uniform on the deck. 4) Built up glue on the outside of the coil scrapes off easily with an X-Acto or a probe once the coil is secure on the deck. 

 

I'm reminded that my other experience with flemish coils in my sailing life was to view them with a certain amount of scorn. They were a nice way to dress up the deck, but they're really not functional. They tend to hold water and stay wetter than a traditional flake, and they're a bit of an affectation. At regattas, people would kick them when crossing boats in a raft.

 

Here's my progress, with 4 cannons done and the 5th part way there. 

The white-glue mix seems to be whitening my lines more than in photos of other people's work that I see. Is mine not dilute enough? (I'm at 50/50 glue/water). Am I using too much?
It's too late for this build; I'll keep it consistent from here on out. But next time, I might want lines that look new rather than weathered.

 

 

Edited February 21, 2016 by grayarea

[GuntherMT]

 

The white-glue mix seems to be whitening my lines more than in photos of other people's work that I see. Is mine not dilute enough? (I'm at 50/50 glue/water). Am I using too much?

 

 

Looking good.  I solved any discoloration by soaking the entire line, including the part rigged in the tackle on the guns.  I just painted it on with a brush and let it soak in.  Bonus to this is that the line holds it's shape (and can be shaped when semi-dry) so you can get somewhat natural looking drop to the line where it isn't under tension.