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

[HIPEXEC]

Blocks squaring your bulkheads will keep her straight for the whole build. Nice job so far.

[aliluke]

Hi Brian

I use water based wood paste for my treenails. I mix it so that it looks almost exactly the same colour as the deck. That way they don't stand out which I believe, at virtually any scale, is correct.

[GuntherMT]

Thanks Rich, and I got your message and sent him an email.

 

Alistair, thanks for the tip - I could probably use that same filler that messed up the Carmen hull so much, as it's very light colored (which was the problem with it in that scenario on walnut).  I'll do some testing with that.

 

Fairly brief update tonight, spent most of the day at a charity event so not much time on the ship.

 

I finished gluing in all the bulkheads, and I have started placing reinforcing blocks between the bulkheads.  I'm using 5/16" square basswood for the blocks.  I was going to use balsa, but it's just as expensive as basswood, so I just got basswood figuring it will always be useful to have extra basswood bits around.

 

After last nights update, I decided to do "one more bulkhead" before bed.  Yea, I'm dumb that way.  I managed to get distracted after gluing it in place and setting the blocks against it, and left it so long that the excess glue got onto the blocks and glued the bulkhead to both blocks.  I broke both sides of the bulkhead trying to get them apart.  Because the center slot was solid, and the breaks were both clean, I drilled a hole through the center of the now solid slot, drilled a hole into both sides and pinned the broken pieces all back together with a single long pin made from a toothpick.  After the glue dried, I think it's the strongest bulkhead I have now.

 

[russ]

So far it looks good. Once you begin fairing, it will seem like it will never end, but if it is done well, the planking will be so much easier as a result.

 

Russ

[BareHook]

Dont forget to fair the deck camber on the bulkheads before installing the sub-deck, you photo appears to show one bulkhead "F" i think that is a bit high on the starboard side, but cannot really tell in a photo, just lay a few battens along the deck to determine how they lay.

 

Ken

[GuntherMT]

Thanks Ken, and yes there is quite a bit of fairing to do before laying the deck.  I plan to do that after all of the reinforcement blocks are placed.

[Captain Slog]

Looking nice and straight Brian, good foundation for the planking is half the battle.

 

Slog

[GuntherMT]

Thank you Slog.

 

I've finished the reinforcement blocks finally, although I chose to completely fill the final two gaps at the bow rather than use the blocks, in order to help me see the 'flow' of the hull up there when I get to fairing.

 

While doing the reinforcement blocks, I used the opportunity to correct any minor out of square issues with the bulkheads.  I did this by measuring at multiple points along the top of each bulkhead, always taking my measurements off of bulkhead 'O' which I took great care to square up with all the stern bulkheads and the keel.

 

 

After measuring to determine if I needed any adjustments to the bulkheads, I would cut individual blocks and then fine tune them until they caused the measurements from bulkhead 'O' to be right where I wanted them, and equal on both sides.  I was having some issues where the addition of the glue prior to final fitting would actually change my measurements slightly, so I devised a technique to apply the glue after fitting the blocks in place, so that I did not need to compensate for the glue thickness on the ends of the blocks.

 

After my final measurements and test fitting was complete, I cut a 'cross' into both ends of the block with a razor saw.

 

 

I would then slightly widen the leg of the cross that would be 'outboard', and then place the block without glue, and hold it in place (if needed) with needle nose pliers, while I used a syringe to inject the glue into the cross via the slightly wider leg.

 

 

As can be seen here, the glue would flow through the cross, and would almost always bubble out of each of the other three points almost equally. 

 

 

This method seemed to work quite well, and I had no measurement changes between the final test fit, and the glued in blocks after starting this system.  After the glue had set for a couple minutes I would then use the syringe to lay a 'bead' of glue around all four edges of the block where it laid against the bulkheads.  Testing several blocks that were completely dried shows that they have plenty of strength with this system.

 

After inserting the last two spaces with filler blocks, this is where I'm currently at. 

 

 

Every bulkhead is even with bulkhead 'O'  along at least 3 points on each side, to less than 0.5mm now with all reinforcements in place.

 

Next I'll begin to work on the sub-decks braces and sub-decks for fitment, and the bow fillers I think.

[dragzz]

looking great so far cant wait to see more of done keep up the great work

[Perls]

Hi Brian,

 

I've been enjoying your build so far and I'm learning a lot about how to address shortcomings in the bulkheads. I think you've come up with good creative solutions.

 

I especially like how you cut the crosses and injected the glue. I can think of a few times I could have used that technique.

 

In some of your pics from the 25th, you are using some sort of steel blocks. What are they and where can one find them? Thanks.

 

I'll be following you with interest. Keep up the good work.

 

Best,

Steve

[GuntherMT]

Thanks Dragzz and Steve,

 

In some of your pics from the 25th, you are using some sort of steel blocks. What are they and where can one find them? Thanks.

 

Those are 'Angle Plates' from Micro Mark ( http://www.micromark.com/3-x-3-x-3-inch-angle-plate,7134.html ).  This is the first time I've used them, and I'm not sold on their value vs. the cost.  I did get them on sale so didn't spend full price, but they are still fairly pricey when I think that the Lego/Duplo block solutions I've seen would work just as well, at least for this part of the job.  I don't have kids, so didn't have any of those blocks around to steal.

 

On the other hand, they are heavy flat pieces of steel that can be used as weights and nice flat surfaces, and I didn't have anything like that before, so they will have other uses than just as a nice squaring tool.

[riverboat]

Nice idea on those filler blocks Brian

Frank

[aliluke]

Looking really good Brian. As well as fillers at the bow I added fillers at the stern - highly recommended.

 

I bought my angle plates from a local steel work shop. They are used on industrial lathes, are a fraction of the Micromark cost and I'd suggest much, much sharper. You can see them in my AVS log. This note is added as I think a lot of the hobby shop tools are easily obtained from other sources at less cost and better quality. They just need a little bit of research and inventiveness to find. Jewellers and dentists tools are a good example - although in those two cases you may pay more but you pay for what you get!

[GuntherMT]

Thanks Alistair,

 

And thanks for the likes everyone.

 

I do plan on stern fillers, but not until after I've done the rest of the work on the stern, just to make sure I don't put anything in my own way back there.

 

I realize that I could have gotten the steel blocks (or something else similar) cheaper, but at the time I was looking for an add-on to an order to qualify for a coupon code I had, so I just threw them on.  I'm kind of spoiled in our current 'Amazon' world where I can look at stuff online, click buttons, and then one day after work come home and find a boxy of goodies on my doorstep. 

Edited September 29, 2014 by GuntherMT

[GuntherMT]

Made some more progress today.  Weekends with no plans are pretty good for getting stuff done if I actually work on stuff!

 

Began by fairing the poop deck, which was pretty easy, just a sanding block needed here.

 

 

The notches were not correct in the sub-deck, so I had to adjust them.  The deck was too short as well, but looking ahead to the deck finishing, you end up cutting the leading edge of the sub deck off later to place a trim piece there, so I just shifted the sub-deck rearward and adjusted the notches accordingly, rather than having to trim it off later.

 

Used more pieces of the basswood deck planking material that I won't use for the build to 'clamp' the sub deck rather than using nails or pins.

 

 

Then installed the support beams for the quarter deck and the rear of the main deck.  Used a little collar pin that I think I got from Micro-Mark to hold the forward quarter deck beam in place while the glue dried.  Got them sometime after I could have used them on the Carmen because they looked like they might be pretty useful, and this is the first time I've used one.

 

 

After this, the fun part began.  Fairing the main deck.  This was quite a challenge, as the bulkhead extensions really get in the way of doing much work with a reasonable sized sanding block, and I was quite worried I'd break one off.  I ended up putting a fine grinding stone on the Dremel tool, and held it vertically using the 'flat' face of the stone (cylindrical shaped stone) to grind away on each bulkwark top, and measuring with a plank that extended most of the length of the deck.

 

The bulkhead F that I had shimmed up, I ended up completely sanding down the shim back to the bulkhead material, and then ended up shimming the other side of that bulkhead.  The best laid plans and all.  At the end I had added full shims to the top of 4 bulkheads, and half-shims to another couple before I was happy with how the plank laid from the center line out to each set of extensions.

 

 

After a lot of notch trimming, and breaking off a few pieces of the edge of the very fragile sub deck, I got it glued on, and clamped with the same 'plank & rubber band' system I used on the other sub-decks.

 

 

The odd streak near the center line of the main deck is just a dark spot in the wood.  When I first saw that on the pictures, I do admit to having a bit of a panic moment, wondering how I had a big split in the deck without noticing it.

 

 

Next I'll begin fairing work on the hull, and working on the stern transom.

[aliluke]

Very nice Brian. Smart stuff all round. Although I fumbled through these parts by being much less clever than you, these techniques are great to see for other AVS builders. Super!

 

My major mistake on the main deck was using an epoxy glue that went off too quickly. Got one side down perfectly only to find the other side had already set and set too high. Much sanding and it bugged the build many times afterwards. You'd never know it now though.

[GuntherMT]

You certainly can't tell those difficulties by your final results Alistair!

 

I have the advantage of seeing so many other builds, not only of the AVS, but all the other kits on here, and getting ideas from various places that I can incorporate into my construction.

 

The Hunt practicum says to use epoxy, but it's a wood-wood connection so I just used wood glue like I've done for most things other than those bottom bulkhead shims (used CA for that as I was hand-holding them until they were dry enough to hold the shape).  Given my tendency towards screwing things up, it's always good for me to be able to apply water and 'unglue' stuff.  I've done that a number of times already in this build, so whenever possible I'm going to stick to normal wood glue so I can deconstruct as needed without dealing with those other glue types.

 

Thanks for the 'likes' everyone.

[BareHook]

Looking great, I like yoyr clamping and bonding ideas and plan to use them myself.

Don't forget to bond a block on each side of the mast step bulkhead before planking, they enclose the mast footing.

 

Ken

[GuntherMT]

Thanks for the reminder Ken - that is most certainly on my checklist.  I was going to do it before the sub-decks, but forgot, so I wrote it down on a note yesterday to make sure it gets done before the planking begins.

 

One thing I did notice is that the sub-deck is slightly out of alignment with the mast mortise.  Easily trimmed later, but hopefully that doesn't mean that I'll have an alignment issue on the deck down the road, as I can't really see where it's off I just assumed it was slightly short like the poop deck sub.  It butts up perfectly with the stem, but is a bit short at the quarter deck bulkhead (maybe 1mm).  Looking at the plans it appeared that the small gap at the rear would get covered by both the quarter deck bulkhead and of course the deck planking, and since all the bow parts aligned perfectly I left it that way, since that's (the bow) where all the 'curves' are.

 

Thanks everyone for the visits and the likes.  Off to the office to pay the mortgage!

[BareHook]

Don't worry about the subdeck details, just make sure your final details are located and centered, Its all covered by the deck planks anyway.

Ken

[GuntherMT]

Thanks Ken,

 

I assumed this was the case, but it's good to get confirmation.

[GuntherMT]

I had a box on the door this evening.  The replacement bulkhead arrived from Model Shipways exactly 1 week after they responded saying they would replace it, so pretty happy with their service.  They sent the entire sheet, and the bulkhead "F" is perfectly cut, so my kit part was an anomaly, not an issue with their pattern.

 

Obviously I won't be using it at this point, but it's nice to know they support their product and if I ever do get stuck with a bad part, I won't have to wait too long for a replacement.

 

I got the hull faired with 120 grit, but it was a long day at work and I'm not going to finish it tonight, so no real update or pictures.

[GuntherMT]

When last we saw our intrepid little boat, the subdecks had been glued, but no fairing had been done.  Since then some progress has been made in that department.

I began by doing a 'rough' fairing to see where I needed to add any shims.

 

 

Because of adding all of the shims to the bottom of the bulkheads prior to mounting them, I found that no shimming was needed except for about half a dozen extensions that were not going to touch the planking without causing a 'dip', or needing to remove far too much material from their neighbors.

 

Once again I dipped into the 3/64ths basswood deck planking, and cut pieces for the extensions.  I used a second piece of basswood in the clamping so that the alligator clamps I used wouldn't leave divots in the shims where I didn't think I needed to sand very much material away.  Here you can see my clamping system so that I could use regular wood glue to hold the extension shims in place.

 

 

I made some blocks to reinforce the mast mortise, and placed them.  I made them overly long as I didn't want to apply a lot of glue right around the mortise.  This is also why I added a 'shim' to the edge of them, to get more glue surface away from the mortise opening.

 

 

I cut out bow fillers to a rough size with a hand scroll saw (I see a nice power band saw in my future I think, every time I use the scroll saw I see how useful of a tool it would be where I could guide a piece with both hands or a fence) and then did all the shaping with my Dremel and a drum-sanding attachment.  Once I had them nearly right I glued them in place before the final fairing, as I wanted them fixed in place to do the final shaping against the bulkhead, keel, and deck.

 

 

I did another run with a rough (120 grit) sanding block and reduced all of the bulkheads until I was seeing 'kit bulkhead' material on all the higher bulkheads, so that my mass shimming didn't cause the hull to be too 'fat'. 

 

 

I also realized that I had never beveled the stem, so I finished that, and trimmed the excess wood from the keel that extended aft beyond the sternpost.  At some point I need to make a tiny filler for the hole where the sternpost and keel connect that was left because of the keel being the wrong length.

 

And a couple test plank runs.  Very happy with how nicely they lay all the way from the keel up to the top of the bulkheads.

 

 

Still need to do a final pass with a 250 grit sanding block, but I am going to build out the stern and get it faired up with the hull before I do that.  Looks like the stern should occupy quite a few hours to get it right.

 

Fairly amazing to think that on the Carmen I was at this point in the build within a few hours of starting, since I didn't know any better, and did pretty much none of this early preparation work!  Then again, the planks didn't lay anything like this when I started working on them.

[russ]

So far, the fairing looks like it is coming along well. Keep at it. In my experience, just when you are sure you have it faired, go back and check again. The moment you are sure about it is when the rug is likely to get pulled out from under you.

 

Russ

[GuntherMT]

So yesterday I placed the inner two stern frames based on how the Bob Hunt practicum indicates it should be done, but got nothing else done as I had a long work day and an HOA meeting at night.  This evening I sat down and started trying to get the outer frames to line up in a way that they looked right, and no matter what I did, if I had one edge aligned properly and the window tight, the other edge was all kinds of out of whack. 

 

So I went back and stared at the plans for a while, and it dawned on me while I was looking at them that the Hunt practicum is wrong in this area.  He has the #1 frames only beveled to match the sub-deck, and then glued to the keel, but the plans show something completely different.  The plans show that frame #1 needs to be angled in such a way that the top and bottom of the window frames are level, meaning that the top of frame #1 needs to be narrower than the bottom, and the wing transom ends up completely flat, not angled as shown in the practicum.  But then the 'expanded transom' detail does show a slight curve, so in reality, perhaps it's a little bit of both.

So tonight ended up being a 'go backwards' night, as I soaked the #2 frames to remove them so that I could get to the #1 frames and then re-align the #2's.  Unfortunately I managed to rip off part of the sub-deck with one of the #2 frames, and all the water has made it all wavy because it's so thin.  Hopefully I'll be able to fix that after it's dried by gluing it down to blocks or the top window frame supports.

 

I left the #1 frames in place, as in looking at things, I only need to angle the outer edge where the window frame will sit, and I think I can do that with it in place, rather than trying to remove it from it's very well glued spot against the keel.

 

From last night, placing the frames:

 

 

The various plan views showing what I mean above.

 

And the destruction showing the damage to the sub-deck.  Going to let this mess all dry overnight before I touch it and try to make it right.

 

[GuntherMT]

Also - opinions from other AVS builders on this are more than welcome, but my current plan it to try to get it as close to the plan sheet details as possible here.

[Cap'n Magee]

Ouch, that looks bad! Here's hoping you're able to fix her up. Overall I'd say she's coming along fine, Gunther keep it up!

[russ]

Brian:

The damage to the subdeck is really not that big a deal. It just needs a patch and it will not matter how it looks so long as the deck planking lays flat.

 

On the stern frames, do the laser cut windows have an angle to them that they will fit between the angled stern frames as shown in the plans? If they do not, then you would not be able to fit them in between the frames if you installed them on an angle.

 

If you are going to install the stern frames on an angle, then it is a simple matter of properly beveling the upper and lower ends of each frame. As for the two that are next to the false keel, there is little to be done there. It would be difficult at best to try and bevel their outboard faces to get kind of angle you want.

 

I would let the laser cut window frames guide you on this issue. If they are not angled, then install the stern frames perpendicular and build the stern up accordingly.

 

Russ 

[BareHook]

Brian,

This is where almost every AVS build differs, depending on the interpretation of the plans by the builder. I ended up with the sides of my windows vertical and the angles forming an arch along the top and bottom (see pic). I also chose to round the frame edges and have them protrude out instead of being flush mounted. I think any way you do it will look good, just remember to keep the window frames identified in their laser cutouts because the inboard and outboard port and starboard are slightly different.

Edited October 3, 2014 by BareHook

[jml1083]

Hi Brian,

 

Your AVS is looking sharp! I had a lot of fun building mine and learned many lessons that I apply every day in the shipyard.

 

I think your idea of cutting recesses into glue blocks so you can inject glue is genius.