Emma C Berry by craigb - Model Shipways

[egkb]

Great to see you back at Emm's Craig.. I was in major withdrawal there for a while !

 

Stay Well

 

Eamonn

 

Cracking good job on that decking by the way

[gerty]

Nice work !

[hamilton]

Glad to see an update to this log - great work so far! Just got my Emma in the mail a couple of weeks ago, but won't get to it probably for a year or so.....by then you'll be done and I can steal all of your techniques!

hamilton

[craigb]

Michael: I sort of like the floor for working because it is just a big flat space after all. But my back does get tired after a while. Someday I will have a real workbench.

Eamonn: Thanks for the kind words! I too get ancy when builds I’m following go stale for a while. 

 

Hamilton: I checked out your build log for the Glad Tidings and what a wonderful model!  It is an inspiration for this Emma build. Good to see another non-warship. The rig looks pretty similar to Emma so I will definitely refer to your build when it comes time to rig. I also browsed the Blandford build and will get back to it in detail tonight if I get a few free minutes.  It is amazing how much progress you make on your models in a short time.  My Phantom took 6 months, rushing.  A warship in about a  year is crazy fast!

 

**-------------------**

Pretty similar progress to last time.  I finished test-planking the stern over on the larboard side.  That went OK. Looks nice.  The blueprints say the ceilings don't extend this far back, but again, I'm doing it for practice.  

 

 

I also tapered a few more interior ceiling planks. I tried to get all scientific about it. The accepted method of planking seems to be measuring the frame with a slip of paper, dividing the distance and making up a “tic strip.” I will do that for the outside because 1) it is what everyone does and probably works well and 2) the way I did this didn’t work too well.

I made an excel spreadsheet to do the math for me, thinking this was easier. Then I scribed the width right on the plank, sanded to the mark and glued it up. 

 

 

What ended up happening though was that I didn’t check the width very well after sanding to the mark (live and learn) so the planks were wider than needed and some significant “creep” started happening.  I tested the remaining width and it was just right for a bit less than 5 planks as predicted. No problem right?

 

 

So then I started actually measuring the taper of the plank with a digital caliper before gluing up.  Of course, I over-corrected somehow, resulting in a plank that is noticeably skinnier than all its neighbors.  It is kinda hard to see so I made a big red arrow.

This was actually waaay too skinny and now the remaining width is just a shade wider than needed, and I will probably have to use a slightly wider plank as the last one to make up for it.  Ha! Live and learn.  I remind myself the whole point of test planking the interior is precisely because it won’t be seen.  And I’m learning a lot!

 

 

I’m now waiting for my magnets to arrive in the mail. I plan on using them to hold the planks while the glue dries.  My homemade clamps won’t fit any more, and this is a good stopping point.

 

I am also thinking of good ways to sand the exterior hull planks to shape in an efficient manner.  Maybe making a master plank of brass as a sanding template? One that is very carefully measured to dimension then sort of clamp it to the wood plank to be formed as a guide? I seem to recall seeing this on the forum here some time before. I will also DEFINITELY do the tic-strip method too, that way any creep will be immediately noticed and corrected early on. Finally I will line out the hull with temporary battens and some extra narrow architectural tape to maintain a nice true planking run. 

 

Happy building!

 

Edited August 8, 2014 by craigb

[Mirabell61]

lovely build Craig,

 

Nils

[hamilton]

Hi Craig:

 

There are two secrets to speedy modelling - first, don't care particularly about the results; second, shirk as many other responsibilities as possible without destroying your livelihood. The first tends to make you unpopular with other modellers. The second makes you unpopular with everyone else!

 

In any case, the photos of your Emma are clarifying a lot that seems very vague in the plans/instructions - especially as concerns the well...Looking forward to more....

hamilton

[bobc622]

Thanks for posting the missing photos. I am really impressed with the skills that your model shows. It serves as an inspiration for me, though at my age, eyesight and manual dexterity are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Never the less, it does inspire to do better and hopefully I can retain some of the things I learn from reading your build. My build will keep my mind active even though the end result will not be as good as I once was able to do. Thank you.

[vintage modeler]

Just discovered this build log, although I have been following Wayne's also. I enjoyed reading your clever solutions to problems and will have to try the magnets next time. I am further along on my ECB, my first real ship build,and I thought the plans were fine, especially the planking drawings as they allowed you to lift dimensions directly. I find this model to be very rewarding and although slow going (my schedule) lot's of fun. I think it is a good kit and would recommend those holding it in their stash to get started.

[craigb]

Just popped out for a gallon of milk and… holy cow!  That was 2 ages ago! 

 

Work continues on the Emma. 

 

My plan to use neodymium magnets as holding devices for planking worked pretty well.  Sure, the home made clamps worked a bit better because you can custom set the tension, but I think the magnets will be the way to go for holding the outer planking when the time comes. 

 

 

If the force isn’t good enough for you, you can always double up the magnets- that seemed to work well and you can see it a bit in the photos. 

 

I will also add a couple of warnings:

1) These are strong! Keep all your other metal stuff away or you may find the magnets flying across the desktop and grabbing stuff. 

2) If one does go flying, they are really brittle and break pretty easily on impact.  This has already happened (see photo)

 

 

And, with that, the ceilings on the larboard side are done.  The last one had to be custom sanded with a lot of trial and error, but it finally fit and looks nice. A quick sanding, and it is on to the starboard side. Getting the sides to match will be fun…

 

 

Finally, at some point along the way I held it up to the light to see how tight the planking was.  I won't be doing that again.

 

Happy building. 

[egkb]

Great to see you back at Emma Craig.. She's still a beauty !

 

Eamonn

[Mirabell61]

Craig,

 

ist a pleasure to see her growing, must be fun to build....

Great looking

 

Nils

[thibaultron]

Nice build!

[Blue Pilot]

I have always liked the look of this kit. Yours is looking very nice!

[craigb]

A couple of days off and rainy outside so a good time to work on the Emma.

 

With the ceilings lofted on the larboard side, I turned my attention to the starboard side. But that seemed boring so I first took a few minutes to cobble together a teeny-tiny rabbit plane for the next step: cutting the rabbit and bearding line along the keel.

 

 

I used a couple of pieces of brass strip, drilled a hole very close to the edge then opened it up with a file, creating a tiny edge.  Then soldered on a handle, and good to go.  Not totally beautiful, but works enough for 2 bearding lines.  I hope. A couple of test passes on the now broken jig used to loft the frames, and all looks good.

 

Then, I planked in some ceilings along the larboard side, just aft of the wet well.  All the strips were the same width, so I didn’t have to spend a lot of time getting them all tapered.  This left a little gap, so I took a couple of wider strips, and tapered those nearest the centerline.  Then glued it all up in one go.  Amazing how some things take forever and look easy and other stuff takes no time and gets results.

 

 

Case in point, I finally started measuring, calculating, and sanding the tapered ceilings for the starboard side.  I took the caliper, measured the gap and used an Excel spread sheet to calculate the width at all the frames. Then used the same caliper, set to those dimensions, to scribe lines on the ceiling plank and sanded to width.  Once that was done I used a combination of my home made brass clams and neodyneum magnets to hold the plank in place for gluing.

 

 

I’d estimate each plank was about an hour. 

 

Tomorrow I hope to finish up the starboard ceilings, and thus be done with most of the interior details I intend to model. 

Edited September 30, 2015 by craigb

[craigb]

 

Finished fitting out the interior. Milestone accomplished. 

Lots of practice planking the ceilings. 

Next is to paint the interior, finish the deck beams, put on the covering board and build up the gunwale. 

 

Then plank the hull! 

 

Happy Building!

[gerty]

Looks great ! Nice job

[craigb]

With the interior fitted out, it is time to finish lofting the deck frames.  The kit doesn’t come with the wood for that, because the pieces are a total pain to make, and will never be seen in the finished model. So I decided to make them and hide them forever.  I went on down to the crafts store and got a piece of 1/8” basswood for all of $3.  I love living in NYC where I can walk to places like this.  The place caters to the art college across the street and is very well equipped with many sizes of wood as well as pretty much any craft supply you could think of.  Lots of fountain pen stuff too, oddly, but that is a topic for another time.

 

The knees are interesting pieces.  I read somewhere that you can transfer laser printed sheets to wood by ironing them.  So I scanned in the plans and printed them out on the laser printer.  Then turned the iron on and went to town.  Results were ok… sort of.  The lines were pretty faint, a bit inconsistent but pretty crisp.  I think being really aggressive with the heat (and no steam) would be best.  I’ll do that next time.  At “home” I have a dedicated iron for putting mylar on airplane wings.  That would have been the perfect tool for this, as I wouldn’t have to worry about messing up the one I use for shirts in the morning.

 

 

Then I remembered somewhere that you can use solvent (paint thinner etc.) to transfer it to wood, and thought that was worth a try. So on the other side of my piece of bass, I took my printed sheets and rubbed them with lacquer thinner. I did this out in the hallway of the building and stunk the entire place up.  The results were very poor, soaked thinner into the wood to the point that I don’t want to work with it anymore.  Specifically, the lines were poorly transferred and very blurry. 

 

 

Lessons learned: Heat transfer method is definitely best.  Guess I need to take a walk and pay another $3 for some more wood now. 

 

Also, I cut out and sanded all the laser marks off some more deck beams. 

 

 

I’m still waffling on painting the interior, after all the work I did.  But, one other builder (I forget, sorry!) said it is a working boat.  It should be painted as such. 

 

Happy building

 

--cb

 

[turangi]

Great build log but unfortunately the last OP post was almost 5 years ago. I am currently building the same model and have run into the same issue mentioned in post #27 with the frame 4. I set it to the height indicated by the plans but there is a considerable shortfall down to the rabbet. I suspect a laser programming error resulted in a frame that is too short. I am going to attempt to splice in a piece at the bottom to meet the rabbet line and try to create a reasonable fair line. Most obvious solution would be to make a new longer frame but I don't have the necessary tools or experience to accomplish that task. I'll post the results.  Any advice from experienced modelers would be gratefully accepted!!