Armed Virginia Sloop by GuntherMT - FINISHED - Model Shipways - scale 1:48

[GuntherMT]

Thanks for your encouragement and likes folks.

 

Puttering along with the deck planking now, the custom shaped planks alongside the hatches are pretty slow going, especially since I've had to remake 2 of the 3 along the way, but I think the end results will be worth it, I'm really liking it so far, and this holly is just wonderful to work with, it just blows basswood away, even ignoring the 'looks' part.

 

 

I think I'm going to place the margin planks very soon, instead of waiting until after the deck planks are in, as I've decided to go with hook & scarf planking into the margin, instead of nibbing, as that wasn't prevalent in ship building until 40 or more years after the date of this ship (see discussion on nibbing in the planking sub-forum).  Since hook & scarf deck planks don't require the margin plank to be cut into, I think it will be easier to get a neat mating to it with the deck planks if it's in place first.

Thoughts on that?

[thowen]

Nice work. What wood did you use for the planks?

[GuntherMT]

Nice work. What wood did you use for the planks?

 

Thanks, it's holly from Hobbymill.

[egkb]

Crackin' good planking going on there Brian.. I suspect you are right to put the Margin down now to help with a neater finish.

 

All The Best

 

Eamonn

[UpstateNY]

Hi Brian,

 

Your decking is looking great and like the way you angled the planking slightly into the deck features. Holly looks really crisp as well...great color!

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

[GuntherMT]

The planking continues at a fairly slow pace as I've only had a few hours to work on it a couple nights this week due to work and other draws on my time.

 

Still pleased with the results, and haven't had to remake too many things (yet), but from here on out almost every plank will be hand cut from wider stock, so the potential for terrible results will increase greatly!

 

I hope to cut the margin strakes, and maybe even finish the main deck planking tomorrow, but we'll have to see how slowly it goes as I cut all the custom fit edge planks.

 

Photo's!

 

[Dimitris71]

Hello Brian, excellent work on the deck planking. It's beautiful!!

 

Cheers

Dimitris

[augie]

Deck planking looks superb.  I think you'll like he hook and scarph.  I found it much easier to do and more pleasing to the eye.

[Beef Wellington]

Sweet looking deck there Brian.

[GuntherMT]

Thanks everyone for the kind words and likes.

 

The main deck planking is all placed. I learned a number of things doing this, and in retrospect I would have done a few things differently (where the butt-ends landed, I should have started the hook & scarf at least one, and probably 2 planks earlier), but overall I'm fairly happy with the final results. 

 

Now I need to plank the quarter-deck, and then do a full scraping and get a couple coats of poly down (oh, and open up the holes for mast, stove pipe, etc.) before drilling a bunch of little holes!  I also need to make some small adjustments to the main hatch, and re-poly all the deck furniture which is all still just sitting in place, not glued.

 

Edited February 23, 2015 by GuntherMT

[UpstateNY]

Looks awesome Brian!

[dgbot]

Your deck is awesome well done.

DavidB the same

[rafine]

The deck is really nicely done Brian. Don't focus on what you think could have been better.

 

Bob

[GuntherMT]

Thanks for the feedback all.

 

I am not focused on what is wrong with the work, but I do want to learn and improve, so I need to note for myself what went wrong and what went right as I go along.

 

I could certainly rip things out and redo them, but if I start down that road for things that are not terribly wrong, I imagine that I'll never actually finish the ship. If I don't have a complete model to display at some point, I'm afraid my motivation to continue would dwindle.

[KenW]

Good job!  The decking looks excellent. 

Cheers.

[gerty]

Beautiful work Brian - the decking looks terrific !

[GuntherMT]

So I've actually accomplished some more things on the AVS over the last few days, in the form of completing most of the quarter-deck.  Today I completed the quarter-deck, and then began drilling holes.  Ended up with 510 holes (I think), and only after it was completed and I was editing the photo's to upload did I notice that I missed a pair of holes on a butt joint.  Oops.  I also managed to knock one out on the quarter deck, so after the poly has dried I'll have to add the 2 missing ones and repair the one that came out.

 

I got going on things and didn't take any in-progress photo's of the quarter deck, or the tree-nailing except for the first shot.

 

[dgbot]

Your deck is first rate.

David B

[russ]

Good work. The colors on the deck planking look great. I like the varying shades from plank to plank, especially on a vessel like this. The fastenings look very good as well.

 

Russ

[HIPEXEC]

These photos finally do your ship justice! Great job. I'm glad I got to see it up close. Your work is excellent.

[jsolka]

Your presentation is very good and detailed. Nice pics. Amazing job. I'm not there yet, so the most of it didn't really speak to me as it would, should I have been on that level. Thank you.

[GuntherMT]

Small update.  As most of you have seen, I got a bit distracted by a canoe, and also lots of work, so I haven't had much time to sit down and do any sort of real work on the AVS, but tonight I did get the quarterdeck wall mostly done.  It still needs to be finished and have details added, but the wood is in.

 

I am again using cherry for the door paneling.  I do not have the base trim in yet either.

 

[BareHook]

Looking really good!

Just a thought, when you plank the poop deck, make sure you bevel the planks or you will end up with wide gaps due to the radius of the deck arc.

 

Ken

[GuntherMT]

Thanks for all the likes!

 

Just a thought, when you plank the poop deck, make sure you bevel the planks or you will end up with wide gaps due to the radius of the deck arc.

 

Thanks Ken - I'm sort of bevel happy - I beveled every plank everywhere, but that's a good reminder, as the poop has more radius than anywhere except the curve of the hull.

[BareHook]

BTW just noticed the index on the first post, Awsome idea especially for the longer build logs

[GuntherMT]

Few more details added as I continue to put off cutting the tapered planks for the poop deck.  

 

Added the bottom molding and the door handles and hinges for the quarterdeck wall.

 

 

It's amazing how terrible the unfinished wood can look in macro photographs.

[dgbot]

The problem with macros is you cannot hide the booboos. You are still doing a good job keep it up.

David B

[thomaslambo]

Hi Brian,

 

Wow, just caught up with your build log.

 

Amazing level of detail on your log, and particularly appreciate the effort/description on your final technique for planking the main deck.

 

Thanks much,

 

Boyd 

[HIPEXEC]

Looking good, Brian!

[GuntherMT]

Been a little while, thank you for all of the kind words and likes.

 

Work has been extremely busy, so I have only spent a very small amount of time here and there on the AVS lately, but this morning I decided to make a few hours of time to put the poop deck to rest.  I started trimming the planks for this part weeks ago, and just couldn't seem to get the time to finish.

 

For anyone else building a model with tapered planks like the poop deck of the AVS, I found a very simple jig in another AVS build log that works quite well for making the planks so they don't have to be done completely by hand, 26 times.

 

First up, I cut 28 pieces of plank to the appropriate length.  I use a simple jig that I made to cut the hull planks to 4", and just measured and cut a new slot for cutting these planks:

 

The angle jig is surprisingly simple, but I don't think I would have thought of it if I hadn't seen it in another build log.  I apologize for not giving proper credit, but I can't seem to locate it again right now.

 

The jig is made up of a 1/4" piece of wood that the deck plank lays against, 2 x 1/4" end pieces which are cut to length (sanded to final length after glue is dried) to give the proper taper, and a couple pieces of .030" (deck plank thickness) of planking placed to hold the deck plank in place, and also to support the straight edge used for cutting.

 

Place the plank into the jig, hold a straight edge up against the end 'stop' pieces, and then using very light pressure on the blade, simply cut along the straight edge to make tapered planks.  I used a very thin steel straight edge for the actual cuts, the clear plastic one is for the photo only to show how it rests on the support planks.

 

Then, start placing planks!

 

Didn't take any other in-progress shots, it's just normal planking, but care must be taken to bevel the edges, as the curve of this deck will cause significant gapping if the planks are left straight edged.

 

Once complete there is a ledge left at the front end of the deck.

 

This ledge is a place for a moulding to go, which is supposed to be made out of walnut.  However, I happened to have a piece of swiss pear that was almost exactly the right dimensions to make this moulding, so of course, I had to try it.  I used a heat gun and pre-bent the curve into the wood so that it laid evenly all along the top edge of the deck, and then I beveled the back, and rounded the front.  I also used a very sharp 2mm chisel to fine tune the front edge of the deck until I was happy with the fit along the edge.

 

And finally, I sanded to 320 grit, and applied a coat of wipe-on poly which is currently drying.

 

There are some fitment/gap issues along the top edges on both ends of the quarter deck wall, but I don't really see any way to fix them as they are built into the ship from mistakes made earlier in the contruction, so I'm just going to move on and hopefully they won't be very noticeable after the ship is finished with so much other stuff to catch the attention of the observer.

 

Next I think I need to assemble the cannon carriages.