Red Dragon by UpstateNY - FINISHED - Artesania Latina - Scale 1:60

[augie]

Cheers!

[janet bode]

 

Hi Upstate NY

Hope i got the name right,your build on Red Dragon looks good i shall be following your log with interest

as i am building the same boat as you.I am however at a more advanced stage than you but of course you will be able to watch my build

i have used differant woods than that supplied in the kit, any way it is a interesting build i hope you enjoy it.

 

Regards Janet B

[UpstateNY]

Hi Janet,

 

Thank you for stopping by.  I've been enjoying your build log and am looking forward to seeing some photos of your finished sails. Your Dragon is amazing and I just hope mine turns out half as good! I especially like the way your different wood choices complement each other.

 

On my side, I've decided I am going to do the build mostly using the kit wood to see how it works out. I will scratch build some parts as you have done, for example the windows as I am not very happy with the size or the quality of the kit's cast windows.

 

Thanks,

 

Nigel.

[UpstateNY]

I was able to spend a bit more time than usual in the shipyard over the past week or so and so made a bit of progress. 

 

The walnut keel, bow and stern pieces have been attached. Plans and photos in the kit didn't seem show a stern piece, but the model looked a bit odd to me without it.

 

The deck was then attached and I drilled some holes into the plywood keel through the mast holes and made some mast support rods from some small nails. I thought this would be easier now before the decking was done. I am hoping these rods make attaching the masts at the correct angles easier down the road.

 

Finally, the deck planking was completed. This went faster than I expected. I used an HB pencil to line one side of each plank to simulate the caulking. After the first light sanding, the planking pattern seems to be standing out fairly well. 

 

Thumbnails below.  May be time to dig out the SLR rather than just use my phone camera so the details are clearer.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

Edited February 23, 2015 by UpstateNY

[UpstateNY]

Hi Carmelo,

 

Thanks for the kind words...just taking my time to try and make sure everything fits cleanly by doing test fits before gluing. If something isn't right after gluing, I just strip the piece off and start again. Your build is coming on very nicely - looking good!

 

I am just using a thin layer of wood glue on the strip to place the decking.  I am letting the glue dry slightly so it is rather tacky before placing the strip. I find this allows the glue to hold the strip down firmly.. It still gives me a minute or so to adjust the strip to make sure the joints are tight. I like the wood glue as I can then clean up any excess using a damp cloth. I'd make a huge mess if I used CA!

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

[Carmelo5150]

Thanks for the info.

[UpstateNY]

Hi All,

 

Well, been busy learning how to treenail on the deck! I used my Dremel with a #74 bit in the small Dremel drill press. I had a lot of problems with consistency as I found it hard to see the tiny bit as it approached the deck. I then found I could hit the pencil marks more consistently if I also watched the shadow of the drill bit approach the mark using a light shining at an angle from side. 

 

The holes were then filled with a light colored filler, sanded smooth and then several coats of WOP were applied with steel wool being used to lightly smooth the finish between each coat.  The final treenail effect is quite subtle at normal viewing distances. Hopefully most of my errors will be hidden under the different deck fittings. I’ll just have to make a few buckets, barrels and boxes to cover anything that is still visible! 

 

One fun item is I’ve started on replacing some of the rough laser cut wood plywood pieces that will be very visible. Below is my current effort to build the forward brace in walnut. I still have to completely match the depths of the small cutouts on the top surface, but getting close.

 

Pictures and below and as usual thanks for reading. Next up..hull treenailing!

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

 

[tarbrush]

your treenailing came out beautiful Nigel

[Carmelo5150]

Looks awesome. Great detail work.

[Carmelo5150]

I deleted the picture of my Red Dragon build from your thread , didn't want to confuse your followers.

[UpstateNY]

Hi All,

 

Firstly thanks to John and Carmelo for the kind words and to all for the likes…much appreciated. 

 

Carmelo, there was no worry on my part about your picture…I am looking forward to seeing your progress on your Dragon!

 

As for my build, I’ve managed to finish the hull tree nailing. I used a dark walnut filler to try to get the treenails to stand out against the sapelli planking.  They don't show up strongly, but in the right light they are visible.

 

I also finished planking the underside of the deck and added some walnut strips to look like support beams, lining them up with the planking joints. The plans don’t call for this and almost none of this work will be visible after the bulwarks go on.  For reason I feel better knowing the underside of the deck is finished to match the top! 

 

Anyway thumbnails below and next up is attaching the cabin and the upper bulwarks.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

[augie]

I've walked many real decks where the treenails are such a close match that you hardly notice they are there.  Yet, they add a 'presence'...... a texture, if you will.  Really nice looking hull, Nigel.

[UpstateNY]

Thanks Augie!

 

So, I made a little more progress this weekend on the Dragon.

 

The cabin has been assembled, planked and treenailed.  I then skipped ahead of the instructions to complete the rudder. This allowed me to use the rudder assembly to set the correct angle and placement of the rudder post holes through the main and cabin decks. I did this now as didn't like the idea of drilling these large holes with the model largely assembled. I also marked the gluing location of the cabin on the main deck while I had the rudder clamped in position. The cabin was then glued onto the main deck.

 

She is slowly starting to take shape and some photos are below. Next step is now to start assembling the upper bulwarks.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

Edited March 17, 2015 by UpstateNY

[UpstateNY]

Hi All,

 

Only a quick update, but here is my first attempt at using Chuck’s edge bending technique as demo’ed in the video in his awesome Cutter Cheerful build log. Link below.

 

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8131-hm-cutter-cheerful-1806-148-scale-by-chuck/page-22

 

The waterways (2x3mm walnut) on the Dragon need to be edge curved to match the deck shape. I used the cutoff from the laser cut deck sheet to draw out the shape of the deck and then clamped the strip to form the needed shape. As the Admiral’s hairdryer was off limits ( ), I used the Captain’s embossing heat tool to heat the walnut gently for about 5 minutes, keeping the heat tool moving all the time. After allowing the strip to cool for 30 mins, I released the clamps and the strip matched the needed shape pretty well. A minute of light pressure until the wood glue tacked up and done with no clamping needed.

 

Wonderful tip…thank you Chuck!

 

Thumbnails below. Apologies for the image ordering...uploads aren't working correctly for me right now.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

Edited March 19, 2015 by UpstateNY

[UpstateNY]

Hi All,

 

So over the weekend, I managed to attach the bulkwarks. Once more Chuck’s heat technique helped to preform the bulwarks, but I found I needed to slightly overbend the ply to hit the needed shape as it wanted to spring back more than the solid walnut I used for the main deck waterways. Port bulwark was then planked on the outside in basswood using the same 4 shift pattern as used for the deck, trying to match up the joints to the decking lines. Finally, I added the poop deck walnut rubbing strakes and waterways again heating them to preshape. Feels good to be finally starting to add some of the deck details. 

 

Thumbnails attached below and as usual thanks for reading.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

Edited March 24, 2015 by UpstateNY

[josh0526]

I am continually amazed by the perfection achieved by many builders when it comes to planking. Keep up the great work!

 

This looks like a very unique build that I am looking forward to following.

[UpstateNY]

Hi Josh,

 

Welcome aboard and my thanks for your more than kind words.  . Certainly the standards achieved here on MSW amazes me continually as well.

 

As a build, the Dragon is perhaps a bit different, but it is proving to be a fun kit to build.

 

Thanks again..cheers!

 

Nigel.

[UpstateNY]

Hi All,

So, continuing to add the detail to the outside of the port bulwark. I am using walnut which I hope makes a nice contrast against the basswood planking. Much this work is not actually in the plans, but it is a lot of fun adding it in. Heartstopping moments  were as I cut in the entrance using a fine razor saw, but all went well with only some fine scratching of the decking I can easily finish out. I then detailed the entrance using various sizes of walnut strips. I thought I was done on the entrance, but the macro shot shows I have a lot of clean up still left to do! The underside of the port bulkwark is also completed with the last strip now glued on to finish the bottom surface of the ply bulkwark. All the strips were as usual heat formed to shape.

Next steps are to treenail the bulwark outer planking (you can see my setup pencil marks in some shots) before starting to finish the inside of the port bulwark.

As usual thanks for reading and for the “likes”. They are much appreciated.

Cheers,

Nigel.

 

 

Edited March 29, 2015 by UpstateNY

[augie]

Some really nice contrasts there.  Good choice!

[UpstateNY]

Hi All,

A little more progress has been made to finally complete the port bulkwark. Outer basswood planks were first treenailed using the drill and fill method in the same way as the decking. The inside of the bulwark was then also planked with basswood to help hide all the treenail holes!

3x3mm walnut strips were then cut, sanded to match the waterway thickness and finally glued to the planking to make some dummy frames.  The dummy frames were aligned to the joints in the decking. Making these frames took me a long time as each frame had to be individually fitted to match the hull and deck shape correctly. I usually needed several attempts at sanding the angles correctly before each dummy frame fitted at least reasonably well.

Walnut strips were as usual heat formed to shape the fore and aft gunwales. The bow curves especially took repeated heating before I could match the hull shape. Some edge bending was also needed to get the strip to lay correctly on the frame tops. Aft gunwale was made in pieces in the end as even with heat, I kept breaking the strip at the sharp transition to the poop deck.

As usual a few thumbnails are below. After some final cleanup, the starboard bulwark is up next.

Cheers,

Nigel.

 

 

 

 

 

[CaptainSteve]

Lookin' good, Nigel.

[augie]

Really nice rail.  Now do it again!

[UpstateNY]

Here you go Augie...couldn't resist doing the other rail!

 

Now I have to get to the point I can actually glue it on! Hopefully it won't completely spring back over the next week or so!

 

Back to planking! 

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[augie]

I'm laughing because I'm in the middle of doing the same thing  --  edge bending bow rails.  But they're not going on 'til next week.  Did I mention there are already one or two in the 'scrap box'?

[UpstateNY]

Ah...now I get it!   I know your bow rails will look just as great as the stern rails you just completed.

 

Perhaps I got lucky on the bow rails, but yep, there are more than a few splinters in my ever growing scrap pile from trying to get the aft rails to bend to shape! Perhaps next time I'll try those fancy joints I see you experts sometimes use on rails where they curve quickly..scarf joints I think.  Then I can have even more scrap!

 

Hope spring has sprung for you in Colorado! Snow piles are almost gone here!

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

[UpstateNY]

Hi All,

 

A small update this week as I continue to work on the starboard bulwark. The inboard and outboard planking has been completed and rear walnut trim applied to the stern. This then allowed the underside trim on the stern to be completed to finally link the port and starboard sides.

 

A small celebration here as the last of the winter snow in the yard has finally melted today and there is a new color appearing on the ground - I think it is called green! The outside beckons!  

 

Thanks to all for reading and of course for the likes and comments.  All are much appreciated.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

 

 

 

 

 

[UpstateNY]

Progress this week has been slowing down as weather has been great so the outside was the place to be. The bosun was very happy about this given he now has his favorite ball back after it emerged from one of the final snow drifts so there's been a lot of ball throwing this weekend! 

 

That being said, the starboard side and final bow trim has now been completed. Next week there will be a lot of clean up before the final coats of poly are applied to the hull and decks before starting on all the fun deck items.

 

So the usual pictures are below and as always thanks for reading and of course for the likes.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 20, 2015 by UpstateNY

[augie]

Super foundation for all the fine details to come.  Nice job, mate!

[UpstateNY]

Hi All,

 

Most of the time this week has been spent scrapping all the surfaces to remove any residual glue. This residue seems to show up as a lighter film after the poly is applied and was especially noticeable on the darker walnut trim. Still seem to be a few lighter areas which need some work, but finish is looking a lot more even now. The bulwark and stern tree nailing was also finished off before a few coats of wipe on poly per applied w steel wool being used to lightly smooth down the surfaces between coats.

 

I then made a start on the fun decking stuff....nothing is glued in yet, they are just placed on the deck to see how they are looking. The deck supports for the masts and rear flag pole were sanded and poly’ed.  Deck hatch covers were made up and also poly'ed, but I’ll probably have to redo these as the planking lines look a bit uneven. Finally I made a prototype of the poop deck mizzen capstan. I still have to drill the dowel to attach the brass capstan bars. Looks like it is time to order the brass blackening solution now.

 

Thumbnails below and as usual thanks for reading and the likes.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

 

 

 

 

 

[augie]

Fun stuff.  Looking great.