18th Century Longboat by divarty - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:48

[divarty]

Really sharp looking , that is a great shade of red you have on there.

 

Thanks Adam, much appreciated!

 

Today I put in the floorboards and started work on the forward platform.  I think I got a pretty good setup on the floorboards, I used some pushpins in between the boards to keep the same space along the length.

 

 

In the photo above you can see my initial mockup of the forward platform, fortunately (or unfortunately) election season is upon us here in the states so I have plenty of heavy card stock flyers from candidates to chop up and use for the platform template.

 

Here is the final platform.

 

 

And during a simple dry fit

 

 

To be honest I don't like the way it came out and so next weekend will be back to recreating the mockup and cutting a new platform.  Instead of using the two cross pieces I think Im going to glue the planks to a 1/32nd piece of bass wood and then cut it to the profile of my new template.

Edited October 27, 2014 by divarty

[Redbeard]

Looking really nice...keep up the good work.

 

John

[divarty]

Looking really nice...keep up the good work.

 

John

 

 

Thanks John, much appreciated!

 

Today in the shipyard I redid the forward platform, it came out much more to my liking

 

 

and I ensured it left enough room for the risings (many thanks to Ryland for the PM reminding about that little gotcha.) Then installed it permanently

 

 

After finishing up the forward platform I built up a template for the rear platform, put it on a 1/32nd sheet of basswood, planked it up and started the dry fit.  All I can say is OOPS, I started another mockup and will plank it and install it tomorrow.

 

 

After I finish up the rear platform tomorrow I'll roll forward with the risings and seats.  I picked up some new stain, a slightly lighter one than what I used on the planking, it will hopefully make the floorboards, forward platforms and seats stand out a little more.  I will also be retouching the red paint on the cap rail that got dinged while I was working around it.

Edited November 2, 2014 by divarty

[Ryland Craze]

Ryan,

 

Nice job on the forward platform.  It is way better than your first attempt.  The platforms are difficult to make as you try to get the proper fit. 

 

Keep up the good work.

Edited November 2, 2014 by Ryland Craze

[divarty]

Today I started my work with the rear platform, after yesterdays mistake of the crooked eye I paid extra attention when gluing the planks that they were going to come in straight.  It worked!

 

 

I did notice that in the instructions the rear platform is cut so that it curves into a much smaller space as it moves toward the aft, after I finished I decided I was ok with the shape and size of mine.

 

I then proceeded to the risers, I was careful to use a spacer underneath the cap rail to ensure that I had consistent distances along the entire run as well as ensuring that both sides were mirrors.

 

 

I put in the front of the storage locker after completing the risers

 

 

In this picture you can see the run of the boat inside, I used a slightly different stain on the floorboards, risers, platforms and thwarts.  The planking and structure of the boat is MinWax Fruitwood 241 while the internal structures I went a hair lighter on and used Ipswitch Pine 221.  The Ipswitch pine has a nice light reddish hue that I felt matched up nicely with the red on the cap rail and knees (hard to tell from the photos)

 

 

I started playing around with the thwarts, I just have them dry fit and not accurately at this point

 

 

And then I pulled them out, scribed and stained them.  

 

 

That will be the beginning of next weekends time in the shipyard, finishing the thwarts, cockpit and figuring out how to make the all important thwart where the mast comes through.  I'll be poring over all the finished build logs to see how other folks have done that portion.

Edited November 3, 2014 by divarty

[Redbeard]

Just recieved my Longboat a couple of days ago. Can't wait to get started after seeing yours coming together!

 

Nice work...really enjoying your build !

 

John

[SkerryAmp]

Really like the colors.   Reading yours and some of the others makes it hard to resist pulling mine off the shelf.  I already have 5 kits going right now, I am sure I will cause a ruckus if I start yet ANOTHER... but you guys are making it look like so much fun!!

[divarty]

Just recieved my Longboat a couple of days ago. Can't wait to get started after seeing yours coming together!

 

Nice work...really enjoying your build !

 

John

 

Thanks John, when you start up a build log I will certainly be in line to follow along and see how you are doing.  I'll help where I can but I can only really tell you where I went wrong and be a cheerleader as I watch your build come to life!

 

Really like the colors.   Reading yours and some of the others makes it hard to resist pulling mine off the shelf.  I already have 5 kits going right now, I am sure I will cause a ruckus if I start yet ANOTHER... but you guys are making it look like so much fun!!

 

 

Thanks Adam, its a great little build, a lot of life out of this little boat.  I have to tell you I have no idea how you keep 5 kits going at the same time, one is plenty for me to think about at a time.

[divarty]

Didn't make a ton or progress this weekend I put the thwarts into their proper positions and finished off the rear cockpit seating and the first part of the rear enclosure.  I also touched up all of the red that I had dinged on the transom and cap rail.

 

 

I did the initial ironwork for the thwart that has the mast coming through it, painted it and prepped it.

 

 

Unfortunately 5 stores later and no one in my area carries any brass blackener.  The only place I didn't have a chance to stop by was the gun store.  I'll order some on line for future use.  In the meantime the acrylic paint I put on the brass chipped when while I was handling it to install it.  Ill use some more acrylic paint along with my smallest brush to touch it up when I install it into the boat.

 

Now the big news, I failed to make a ton of progress this weekend because I was cleaning up the garage and doing a ton of reorganization in order to make space for my new toy!

 

 

The Admiral stumbled into a deal where the previous owner had purchased a new lathe and his Admiral was forcing him to sell his old one (Jet 1236) he offered it to me for $150.  All I had to do was pick it up.  Having no experience with lathes this will be quite the learning curve but I couldn't pass up a deal like that.

 

 

 

[divarty]

I had a random thought today that nail technicians would be outstanding model boat builders because they are so used to filing and sanding oddly shaped items down to a perfect spec.  On that note progress was made int he ship yard this weekend.

 

I used the new lathe to taper the mast, the dowel was far too whippy to actually use tools on so I ended up working it down with various grade of sandpaper, essentially using the drill method but on the lathe.  It's still slightly larger then the plans call for at the top and doesn't have the small "step" near the midpoint but I still needed to drill the holes for the simulated sheave and I was worried if I take it down to the spec I wouldn't be able to do it without breaking the mast.

 

 

And with a quick dry fit

 

 

I was working on putting the knees in and I think they are the quite possibly the most fiddly little bits that I've had to work with yet in this kit.  I wish I had installed the small board that fits under the front end of the cap rail (no idea what it's called) before I put the thwarts in because I couldn't get any angles to get it.  I ended up putting a pin it to hold it and slide it into posistion.

 

 

I used the pin to maneuver it into position with a touch of PVA on it and then a pair of curved tweezers to fulcrum it from below and push it tight to the cap rail.

 

 

I completed and finished the windlass and two handles, following the instructions I only dry fit the handle for a visual but pulled it back off while I continue to work on the boat.  This was also the point where I realized the kit came with rings and eyebolts for the lift rings on the floorboards, I had actually rigged some up from the wire stock that came with the kit, not perfect but already CA'ed into place so I'll have to live with them.

 

 

Then it was off to the races on the oarlocks, following a lot of the other builds I built a quick jig withe two holes  marked out to help me with spacing and height.  I laid the jig on the cap rail and marked the hole placement for all the oarlocks, pre-drilled them then glued an over length piece of wire in place with some CA.

 

 

I slid the jig down on top of the two wires and clipped them using a pair of flush side cutters.  The admiral will probably kill me because I didn't control the end that was being cut off and they ended up hitting walls and rebounding all over the work room never to be seen again (until you walk through with bare feet that is)

 

 

Finally I painted all the oarlocks and touched up everything I had dinged while putting all the various bits and bobbles together.

 

 

I started work on the rudder but didn't make much progress so thats where this weekend in the shipyard ends.  As always, it was an interesting, head scratching totally fulfilling weekend of work.

Edited November 17, 2014 by divarty

[Mike Y]

Very very nice! Especially the pins to put that tricky piece in place

[divarty]

I've been thinking about the final display of the boat (I like to plan years in advance  ) and had a question to throw out to one and all.  If the longboat was under oar power would the mast be shipped and the rigging down?  My google fu has turned up nothing that would answer the question.  My thought was to somehow fix the oars in the oarlocks as if in use but I wouldn't want to do that if it meant the rigging and mast would be out of place.  Or does that just over complicate the final display and it's crisper with a number of the oars perched across the thwarts?

 

ryan

[divarty]

Made some progress this weekend, I finished up the rudder, the wire used to make the pins on the pintels was damn near impossible to work with, being so short it was very difficult to hold onto and hard to see without my magnifying headset, after quite a bit of struggle I finally got it all together.  For the tiller I cut a piece of 1/16"x 1/16" wood and rounded out the upper 2/3rds and paired it all down very carefully.  For the ball on the end I rounded the end of a 1/16" x1/16" stick with sandpaper then separated it using an xacto knife with a series of cuts to leave it fairly spherical, I wanted to avoid sanding this bit as it was so tiny that it was difficult to hold onto.

 

 

I put in the eyebolt and attached the gudgeon then attached the rudder and tiller to the boat.

 

 

I started to work on the mast a little more, I drilled all of the holes for the simulated sheaves then struggled for a little trying to figure out how to file down the groove between them.  I finally settled on a v cut from both sides using a sharp xacto knife to take out a decent amount of wood then dragged a rounded tool through the cut to smooth it out.

 

 

I made a little progress (very little) on the ironwork for the mast, I really only managed to start the ring for the boom, I bent it and soldered it but didn't have a chance to cut it down to size or blacken it/paint it.

 

 

With turkey day coming up on Thursday I'll have a decently long weekend to get in some more time in the shipyard.  

[divarty]

I got a little time in the yard before going to the gatherings yesterday.  I was trudging along with the ironwork for the main mast, managed to break my 79 drill bit so moved down to the 78.  After many tries I came up with some decent bands with a hole that didn't break out the side of the band.

 

 

Then I painted and started work on the ball truck.  Unfortunately as I was test fitting the ball truck I temporarily became stupid and instead of holding near the tip of the mast while pressing the truck down onto the tenon I had the mast gripped near the bottom.  I'm sure you can see where this is going without a photo but here it is anyway.

 

 

After a few choice words I walked away from the yard so I didn't follow up my moment of stupid with even more bad decisions while I was frustrated.  Now I need to see if I can fix it of if I just need to rework a new one.  It broke right at the  upper simulated sheave.

[divarty]

After a week of not going into the ship yard because of the broken mast I finally bit the bullet and went back to work.  I glued the mast back together, it was still partially attached, and I used two strips of the brass to brace up the sides, I then painted them black.  Overall not the ideal fix but I was dreading a redo as I had spent quite a bit of time getting my iron work up to snuff.  From a short distance you can't even really see the "fix"

 

(sorry for the blurry pic)

 

 I was working on the boom and the the gaff and trying to figure out how to tie the block for the boom (I couldn't find closeup photos that showed the loop when I came to the realization that I had used the wrong blocks on my mast.  Doh.

 

 

So I cut them off and redid them with the correct 1/8" single block.

 

After finishing that, rereading the directions and finding some close up photos I finally figured out how to do the block for the boom.  While tying these I remembered that ship building is like bomb disposal in one respect, make sure you know which thread you have in hand before you cut it or bad things happen.

 

 

 

I finished up the boom and gaff, here's what all the stick work looks like in one place.

 

 

I also mounted the bowsprit, the red goes beyond the ironwork because I had the bowsprit all set in place when I painted it, I failed to pay attention to the support in the boat however and after having finished painting I realized it was leaning backwards at a 30 degree angle, when I pushed it up to the correct 90 degree angle the red on the bow sprit was in front of the iron band, so I squared it up and called it good.  Another good point to bring up, fortunately the simulated sheave ended up in the right location by pure luck, I failed to check its position before the glue set, in the future I will ensure I pay attention to the entire part when setting it.

 

 

 

I've begun work on the stand for the boat as well, I purchased a pine display stand at Michaels and turned a couple of pedestals for the boat to sit on, I will either stain the base with the reddish Ipswitch pine that I used on the interior of the boat and the pedestals the same fruitwood stain as the hull of the boat or I will go with a darker stain overall, not sure yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[divarty]

Todays visit to the ship yard is brought to you by the word "mistakes".  I made all the chainplates and attached the eyes then mounted them to the boat, after I looked at it I realized that I h ad mounted them equal and fore of the mast instead of equal and aft of the mast

 

 

I pulled the front two off, filled the holes with putty and stained it then drilled new holes aft of the mast and remounted the chainplates. "Doh" number one of the day

 

I rigged the shrouds with the deadeyes and ran the lanyards to connect the chainplate deadeyes and shroud deadeyes.  Everything was going well and I called it a day and cleaned up when I realized I had used the wrong size thread for the shrouds.  I used the .012 black thread instead of the .021

 

 

"Doh" number two of the day it's all good though, I'll cut off all of the rigging I've done and redo it with the proper thread, at the same time I will redo two of the chainplates that sit too high above the cap rail.  

 

One thing I think I will deviate from the instructions when I rebuild them is to have the join of the wires that Chuck shows on top of the deadeye near the side or the bottom, it will be less obvious.

Edited December 15, 2014 by divarty

[divarty]

So a funny thing happened in the shipyard this weekend, I started early on Friday  and was cranking along, next thing you know Sunday rolls around (I had some sleep in between) the boat was finished and I had failed to take progress pictures.  Overall i would say the instructions through this final patch were solid, the only issue I had was it called for thread sizes that I didn't have, the black supplied with the kit only comes in two sizes and I don't think they match up with the sizes called for in the instructions. 

 

The hook on the backstay

 

 

Anchor and forward area

 

 

The traveller ring

 

 

The full boat + stand

 

 

And a quick pic of my next project, I hope I have the chops for it, time will tell, but I will take my time, review logs and try to focus on quality and perfection.  All kidding aside I think it's a 2 to 3 year project for me, so thats where you will be able to find me.

 

 

Thanks to all of the the folks the followed, commented and liked on this build, it's always more fun when people chime in or give you a thumbs up.  Kudos to Chuck Passaro for fantastic little boat design, a lot of feeling and life in this little model, two thumbs up.

Edited December 22, 2014 by divarty

[jburchfield1@wowway.com]

Excellent job!

[Nirvana]

Beautiful job, I am about to add the cap rails to mine.

Debating between MS paint and Vallejo paint.......

[divarty]

Beautiful job, I am about to add the cap rails to mine.

Debating between MS paint and Vallejo paint.......

 

Thank you!  I used Windsor & Newton acrylic that I picked up at Michaels.  For the wood it was excellent, for the metal it tended to flake off, although I think that was most likely my fault for not priming or prepping the metal correctly.

[Mike Y]

Congratulations! Very neat build!

[rtropp]

Hi,

Are your plans the same size as the boat parts, or are the plans smaller? A couple of us just bought the model and the plans do not match the kit parts, they are smaller.

 

Thanks

Richard

[Chuck]

Measure the scale bar on teh plan as most likely the plan was printed too small.  The sections of the scale bar should be 1/4" long.  It is so weird that they could screw up such a small kit having so few pieces.   If the plan is OK and the parts are too big...hopefully you can adjust them by sanding the laser char off and making them the correct size.

 

Chuck

[Jack12477]

Chuck, I noticed a similar problem with my kit. The parts list did not match what was called for in your (very excellently written) instructions. The laser cut parts were fine it was the rope and wire that were mismatched. I would have to go back and recheck to give you a more precise example than off the top of my head. I had no problem with the plans. I ran out of thread for the shrouds because they only gave me a 2 foot piece according to the parts list.

Edited February 4, 2015 by Jack12477

[divarty]

Hi,

Are your plans the same size as the boat parts, or are the plans smaller? A couple of us just bought the model and the plans do not match the kit parts, they are smaller.

 

Thanks

Richard

 

Richard the plans lined up for me as far as I can remember.  The only real discrepancies I remember were for the mid thwart with the mast through it (plans different than what Chuck called for)  and the distance from the top of the frames that Chuck calls out to start your top strake on and my measurement on the plans.

 

Chuck, I noticed a similar problem with my kit. The parts list did not match what was called for in your (very excellently written) instructions. The laser cut parts were fine it was the rope and wire that were mismatched. I would have to go back and recheck to give you a more precise example than off the top of my head. I had no problem with the plans. I ran out of thread for the shrouds because they only gave me a 2 foot piece according to the parts list.

 

Hey Jack that was an issue for me as well but reading through some other build logs (I think it was Stuntflyers) Chuck called out which of the provided sizes to use.   I also ran out of thread for the shrouds but I'm pretty sure that was user error, I tend to cut my lines long and have a lot of excess to snip off rather than run/sieze a good line and realize too late that I'm just a touch short.

[Jack12477]

I'm pretty "scotch" when it comes to line usage. I generally take a line loop it up to the mast point and down, add an inch or two for the seizing and snip it off. Don't have much excess to cut off. I'll look back thru Stuntflyers' log for Chuck's post.