Swift by hircsailor - Artesania Latina

[hircsailor]

 I picked up a older AL Swift at a flea market over the week end. The kit had been started and was in rough shape; The frames, deck and bow, stern blocks were attached in a sloppy way. Nothing was aligned in general it was a mess. It was only $5 and I figured that the wood in the kit was worth it. After getting it home I inspected it and everything seems to be there except the pin nails, the keel was broken In half by frame #7 so this morning I ordered the pin nails from Ages of Sail ad took a good look that the keel and frames. This afternoon I took a saw and cut the keel by each frame to free up the frames. I managed to save the frames and deck now need to cut a new keel this week and start rebuilding the hull. Will update as progress is made.

 A couple of pictures of the kit as I got it.

[giantdog]

can't be worse than the effort I'm doing 

 

I look forward to seeing your progress

[adivedog]

I thought I had problems, and I have a new kit

 

Good luck

[testazyk]

Very cool project!  Best of luck and I look forward to following your log.

[hircsailor]

Spent yesterday afternoon getting the frames off the keel and managed to save all of them and the deck. The keel was broken in half so that was a total no save that is why I sawed through the keel to free up the frames.  I have the sheets that the keel and frames were cut from and will use that to cut a new keel. I set the frames in their sheets and they will fit back in place after a light sanding to remove any dried glue.. So far so good.

[hircsailor]

Cut out a new keel from 1/8" basswood and so far ever thing fits good. Just waiting for the pin nails to arrive so that I can move on. I plan using the bread butter method for the bow and stern  blocks that is show in the article about planking on this site. This way saves a lot of carving and sanding. As everyone says all you have to do is cruise thru this site and you can get an answer to almost any question that you have.

 I have been following the other 2 Swift building logs on the and have picked up some pointers. Since I made a new keel I noticed that the bow and stern are higher that the frames close to them. Since the frames are vertical the blocks either have to be above the frame an trimmed down  or the blocks have to be angled so that they can lay flat against the frames and still match the top of the keel.  Hope this makes sense to everyone.

Thinking ahead I have been thinking of using black thread as caulking on the deck like giantdog is doing.

[hircsailor]

While waiting for some parts to arrive I made up a pattern and jig to make the bow locks. I believe that using the bread butter system of bow blocks will speed up making the blocks. Much less carving and I believe a better fitting piece without risking damaging the frames and keel.

[Grimber]

Cool, I'll have to follow your work on this.  All my experiance is in plastic models so my Swift is new to me with all the wood working.  I'm tring to watch other swifts in progress and get ideas to help me along.  A rebuild is always a great project too to test your skills.

[themadchemist]

For an impulse buy on ebay, I have to say that my Swift kit or what it has become has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. The AL Swift kit has so many issues that it just begs to be bashed and I've gained a whole new respect for the Pilot boats and the jobs they performed in the nautical world.

 

Congrats on saving a poor unwanted Swift. I can never resist watching a Swift build, its like chocolate

[Grimber]

I have an AL Ketch model sitting on a shelf here, will probably be my next model but it needs parts too.  I found on AL web site they sell the parts I need but I'm not sure the cost vs where you did your shopping.

 

http://www.artesanialatina.net/

[hircsailor]

 I brought some tools from Hobbylinc and they were about $10 cheaper the Tower or Model Expo.  The only place that I could find pin nails of the correct size was at Ages of Sail as the carry AL products. You might give them a call to see if they have what you need and their cost, I ordered on Monday and had the parts on Thursday. Great customer service and they seem to know their products.

[hircsailor]

10 days after ordering from Hobbylinc they still haven't shipped the order claiming a problem with cc then shipping address so I cancelled the order and placed it with Tower hobby paying a little more. Funny thing is that Tower hobby and AgesofSail and Model Expo had no trouble with my card. It just gives me a week longer to think about what I am going to do next.

[hircsailor]

Funny how life gets in the way of our hobbies. After close to two weeks I finally had a chance to get back to the Swift. Cut out the bread butter pieces for the bows blocks and like several others put blocks between frames 1 and 2. Glued then in place and when dry will sand to shape. I'm going to wait to do the stern blocks as I'm thinking of making a pattern for the transom to help in shaping the stern blocks.

 Slow but sure but then I'm retired and in no hurry besides it keeps me out of the bars.

 

Jim

[Grimber]

hehe  for me it keeps me out of the way of the wife.  I have my basement corner and she has her computer room and we meet in the kitchen when we are hungry.

 

I did the same thing.  drew up a shape that I guesstamated onto some stock cardboard ( piece of a dog food box ) and drew it on the blocks after I got the basic shaping down off bulkhead 8.  Just kept my sander dowel parallel to the keel line and followed the bulkhead for the basic curvature.  drew in the cardboard pattern shape then tapered from bulkhead to the drawn in guideline.

[Grimber]

I've been lucky so far on some tools.  Swivel pin vise and 20 micro bits off ebay for 1.00  model expo deluxe hobby craft knife set for 15.  I got french curves and french ship curves (these will really help doing 2nd planking) coming from ebay for 5.00, some engineering/drafting triangles squares tri-scale ruler protractor for 4.00,  couple books on ship rigging and model building for .01 each ( so just paying shipping really).  biggest obstacle I know I will be facing is in research for riggings for the swift.    I know there is allot more to it then in the model kit just from watching some videos on similar classes of ships and I want most of the details of the ship in the riggings.

 

may look into some rigging tools ( or see how they are made/shaped and make my own versions) and maybe one of those rigs/clamps used in doing fishing lures.  Seen someone elses log ( can't remember whos now) that was using one and looked like it really was a good set up for that small work.

 

besides that its just wishlist of tools and books I'd like to read.

Edited October 24, 2014 by Grimber

[hircsailor]

Spent the afternoon on the lanai carving the bow blocks to their rough shape. Will use some 50 grit sandpaper to get it closer to it's final shape then attach the deck and finish sanding to final shape.

[hircsailor]

No  one has accused me of being speedy but I have the bow blocks shaped, frames sanded for planking. I am now getting ready to make a jig so that I can rough shape the stern blocks, I have drawn up a pattern for the stern shape but now I wonder if the blocks follow the angle of the false keel which I think would be right or if the block stops short of the stern angle. Of course the instructions don't really say anything about that. I noticed that the box top has a date of 1982 so it is really an older kit. Does any one have some advice about this.

[Grimber]

I've looked at all the swift build logs and I can tell you that the end results of the stern blocks are different on all of them.  some people would make a smooth transition from the blocks to the false keel and others would make a definitive line  I ended up leaving the stern blocks until the very last thing needing to be done before starting on the first planking.  gave me as much time as I could take to finaly decide.  some tappered them to the end of the poop-deck and others followed the back edge of the false keel.

 

I think with this particular part of this kit, AL did a poor job of it.

 

if you look at figure 3  and the side cutaway view there is a small tapered edge of the stern blocks that follow the back false keel line, that is what I went with.  tried to take measurements off those drawings to get what I thought they ment.

Edited October 30, 2014 by Grimber

[themadchemist]

Here is what mine looked like at that point and some of the tools used in shaping. I found the dowel with sandpaper glued on one end and another with it in the middle used as sanding block and the bulkheads as guides as the best way to find the nature shape. I fine tuned my shape based on plank lay.

[hircsailor]

Thanks guys, that is pretty much what I was thinking. Take the blocks and angle them to the false keel. My feeling was that stopping the blocks short would leave a void with nothing to fasten the planking to.

Jim

[hircsailor]

Just spent the last 1/2 hour looking at the other Swift building logs and saw that the newer kits have a transom that look like a triangle more that the oval that the instructions show. Guess that I will have to make and cut a new pattern to look like that then the oval shape that is shown on the plans.

Jim

[themadchemist]

the newer designed kit changed quite a lot to the "bones" as creating larger lower deck areas reduced contact area on several areas of the bulkheads and keel bulkhead. From examining pictures not only was the transom bulkhead added, but the center keel is thickened.
 
Just to give you an idea on the bulk removed in my operational process here is a before and after. I did not use the basswood blocks provided in my kit as shaping would have taken forever. I swapped them for balsa. The main shaping was done with the convex curved rasp and the final tuning with 5/8'' sanding dowels with 100 grit paper. Keeping the dowel parallel to the keel line and riding the aft bulkheads back and forth until the planks tell you by their lay that the shape is smooth and the transition can be planked without issues, making sure not to round over the end, where the transom counter will be planked.
Much of my fairing was dependence on sand, test with plank.... repeat

Letting the plank be my guide.

Before


After