Scottish Maid by mrangus - Artesania Latina - first build

[dgbot]

Treenails are up to the individual.  But at the scale you are working at I would not use them as they would look to big and deract from the rest of the model.

David B

[mrangus]

First coat of tung oil.

[GLakie]

The oil really brings out the finish nicely Robb! Nice job fitting the stern-post. 

 

Cheers

[JesseLee]

Looks great! I didn't put treenails on my hull because of scale & it looks fine.

[mrangus]

Thanks David and Jesse - I agree with you, treenails on the hull seem to be overkill, can barely see them anyways when finished. I think I will, however, put treenails on the mulaki strips above the rubbing strake - they came out ok on the deck. The hull planks are quite a bit narrower (and darker) so... I am taking your advice. From an aesthetic point of view I also think they'd be distracting.

 

@GLakie - thanks! That stern post was difficult. One thing I need to learn if I do this again is to cut an effective rabbet line for the planks to butt up against. I still don't know how to do that, especially without power tools. Also - Angus is a 12 yr old Weimaraner.

[GLakie]

Oh, sorry. He resembles a grey lab I used to have years ago. 

 

Cheers

[mrangus]

Boxwood or Pear Blocks?

 

As I'm getting closer to needing blocks, I'm thinking about getting nicer ones (Chuck's). Boxwood or Pear? What do you think would make sense for this ship?

[GLakie]

I don't really think there is a big difference except for the color. If you want a darker color without staining, then the pear would be a good choice, but the boxwood can be stained.

[dgbot]

If you can stain boxwood blocks I would like to know ow you do it,  I never had luck doing it myself.

David B

[GLakie]

Any wood should take stain after a mineral spirit bath. Let it dry good, then put stain on it. Oil stain preferably. I've yet to run into any wood that can't be stained. I will say that I've found some woods have to soak it up for a longer period than others before wiping it off.  I will add that this product is more or less made for denser woods. It's called the Wood Essence - ColorFX wood tone dye kit I think.

Edited May 21, 2015 by GLakie

[mrangus]

I ordered the boxwood blocks, 4mm. also ordered a set of drill bits for the 4mm rudder post hole, it's a bit disturbing that I have to put a great big hole in a piece of work I spent hours on!  Any advice on how to avoid making a splintered mess of the situation?

[GLakie]

I'd start with a smaller bit at a higher speed and slower feed rate. Try to make a small hole at first, going all the way through, then feed the larger bits in from both directions. Leave the hole smaller and finalize the size with a file. There's probably other methods out there as well, but this is one way I've seen people use on these smaller scales that seems to work well.

Edited May 21, 2015 by GLakie

[mrangus]

More accomplished tonight.

 

I had gone down to put another coat of tung oil on, and 3 hours later....

Decided to add treenails to the bulwark planks, since they are a different color and would stand out nicely. also put a coat of varnish on top of the planks and got a nasty little splinter under the fingernail while doing that. ouch.

Not being satisfied with progress, I also started on the timberheads. marked out the spacing with a protractor (which I gave to my daughter afterward and she promptly broke it ) cut, shaped and added 10 or so timberheads. The bulwarks aren't completely even height  so I'm measuring and cutting each one individually. Being very careful with measurements to try to keep even spacing.

The one rogue timberhead is one that was slightly short, but fit better further down the bulwark.

 

...and then I added a coat of tung oil.

 

Take a look...

 

GL - thanks for the advice on the drill hole - I will certainly take that advice when I come to that step (hopefully soon).

[GLakie]

Nice work Robb! That tung-oil really makes the hull planking pop! 

 

Cheers

[JesseLee]

The oil looks good. I did the hole exactly the way George suggested.

[dgbot]

Looking good.  The oil finish makes it stand out but be careful.  When you use oil on a surface it is almost impossible to glue anything to it.

David B 

Edited May 22, 2015 by dgbot

[mrangus]

Got a little more done this weekend between family and house work. had to fix the gap between the inner bulwark planks with some thin pieces of mulaki. looks reasonable, the varying height across the bulwark is evident now with the decorative planks on. I was torn between placing them and not, in the end I thought it would look ok with the planks - though I respect Jesse's concern about historical accuracy. It helps hide some of the inner planking woes

 

A few pics:

[mrangus]

Finished the timberheads and panels between the timberheads. Looks ok... I think when it's a bit hidden it will look better...

 

So my rudimentary list of todos for next time include:

- small repair where I cut the bulwarks off too short - need to add a little planking in the corner.

- bend the African walnut planks for the gunwales

- sand down the edges of the gunwales to give a curved look.

- fit remaining panels - keep square or contour to the space they belong in?

- sand down timberheads to fit gunwales

- figure out color of gunwales (stain? oil?)

 

 

 

 

[mrangus]

Fixed the paneling yesterday where I had cut the end of the bulwark at the wrong angle. Looks a little better....

[GLakie]

Turned out nice and clean Robb!  All those little details add up in the end, and will make for a beautiful build.

[mrangus]

Thanks George. I put paneling on the bow of the boat as well...

[mrangus]

I got some more detail done over the weekend. The pre-cut  "transom step gunwale" as it's called in the parts list didn't quite fit where it was supposed to go after much fiddling, so I took some spare wood from the laser cut pieces and made my own, which called for a shallower curve and I made a little wider. I think it fits pretty good. I took a pic of the kit piece (which I'm holding) as well as the piece already on the boat, where you can see the difference.

 

Then I worked a while on getting the stern thwart (another new word in my boat vocab) to fit nicely in its place. The two pics show the fit thus far but it's not glued yet. I now have to add the timberheads.

 

 

[mrangus]

Hello all,

 

I was unhappy with the piece of wood on the deck that was supposed to butt up against the transom, so I carefully pulled it off and replaced with a much wider board. The issue I'm having with getting everything to line up is that the angle of the transom is much steeper than it should be, and some of the pre-fab pieces just don't fit right. So... I'm using scrap to create my own. I messed up once before getting it to look ok. Most of it will be covered once I get the gunwale and stern thwart on.

 

I am doing a lot of filing for the timberhead grooves that go on the transom. But the base of the timberhead seats nicely onto the new board I put down - before it was falling into the gap that was leftover.

 

And I'm NOT ripping up the rear of the boat to re-do . I think I have the workarounds that will look decent once all done.

 

[GLakie]

I'm glad you found a solution Robb.  That's what it's all about---getting it to the point where you're happy with it!  

[JesseLee]

I had the same problem with mine. Most of the pre-cut parts did not fit in this area of the ship. I had to soak & bend some parts & others I just re-made myself like you did. You're doing a good job!

 

Jesse

Edited June 3, 2015 by JesseLee

[mrangus]

Thanks gents.

 

Jesse, I took a page out of your build and I am attempting to carve out the boat that sits on the deck. Will have pics when I get somewhere....

[mrangus]

getting the stern timberheads and stern thwart to all work together was a challenge. After much filing and a bit of patience, along with re-gluing one of the timberheads that was out of line, I managed to get some pretty straight lines and I think it looks ok. I thought I had filed down one of the timberheads too far but it turns out that the rest had to come down to fit with the hull edges.

 

I have run into another small challenge. The transom/stern gunwale isn't quite wide enough to fit across the whole stern. What do I do? I think my options are to have the main gunwales come down to the stern and fit the transom gunwale between the two main body gunales. The other option is to "notch in" the stern gunwale to the main body gunwales. Any thoghts to the way i't's been done? I've added a picture at the end that depicts this. Thoughts would be appreciated.

 

Thanks!

 

[GLakie]

The timber-heads turned out good Robb. Not sure what you can do with that myself, except maybe Jesse has an idea since he's already been through it?

[JesseLee]

Hmm.... Other than cut out a new one I would go with your first option. I looked at mine & if you get a good tight fit it doesn't show much in this area because the wood is darker unless you look very closely. It is so close that to notch it you would most likely have to cut more off the sides anyway. If you fit it between the main gunwales no one but a master builder would know the difference.

[mrangus]

Thanks George. one is slightly crooked but I can live with it.

 

Yep I think you're right Jesse. I've burned a lot of cycles thinking about it, and will capitulate. I even had a piece of scrap wood lined up to use but when I pulled the stern waterline to build a better, wider one, I screwed up the first one and had to use the scrap set aside for the stern gunwale so I'm kind of out of options now. Funny I was just looking at your lifeboat carving a minute ago. Mine is coming along slowly, trying to emulate what you did.