Cutwater, Stem and Keel

Got a couple of thing done on the ship, haven't had much time to work on her,  real work is starting to pick up, a good thing for the wallet, not so good for ship building.

 

I wanted to show you the metal hatch covers for the cannons, these are included with the kit. There are five cannons a side, for a total of ten on the ship. There are another 20 holes to cut from the hull where you put these 10x10mm hatch covers, they will get painted and installed later, but the instruction want you to cut the holes now.

 

 

Picture above, not really a great one, but you can see the hatches, between the rubbing rails

 

 

The frame and the hinge

 

Here it is together, I have marked the location of these on the hull, all I have to do is cut the holes, sound like a small task, its a ton of work.

 

 

Now the 10 cannons you see just get a metal frame around them, no hatch.

 

 

 

I will paint and install the frame later.

 

I did get something done on the ship, if you remember a few post back, one of the planking post, I said I wasn't to concerned with the planks on the bow touching. The reason is that the wood has to be removed, down the center of the hull, a 5mm grove. This grove is where the Stem, Cutwater, and Keel get placed.

 

 

This grove was a little tricky to do, but I got lucky and had a file that was just the right thickness to carve it out.

 

 

With the grove carved you just sit the stem and cutwater into place.

 

Might have to use some putty, but the file was almost a perfect match.

After I got that done I started to line the bulwarks, inside.

 

 

 

Just using the deck planks, 10 mm long.



 

Getting tired of cutting cannon holes, have to sand it yet, but getting there.

 

 

Here it is with a couple cannon holes done. I looked at the plans, and didn't  see any frames that go around these holes. I may put some type of wooden window like frame around them, will see.

 

That it for now, I will get back to it, as summer is getting closer every second, and that time of the year really put a hold on ship building.

 

Thanks for all the comments and emails

Dave

 

 

 

 

 



Hull is Planked !!!!

Finally, I can say that the planking is complete. I will need a few hours to sand and fill a few spots, and it really didn't turn out that bad, I did use every piece of Mahogany I had. I asked the manufacture to send me 8 more, for the damaged planks I had. Will keep you updated on that. So I will have to pick and choose the rest of the assembly, if it requires the use of these 2x5x500mm Mahogany pieces I will have to wait till I get them, if I get them. I have a few  kits laying around, I might have to take some of wood from those and use it. I have already broke into one to get the nails I needed.

 

You can see I covered the deck with the blue painters tape, when I started sanding the red mahogany, I noticed that the pale deck wood was turning red. I like this  tape because it releases easy, I have seen people use duct tape. Then when they removed it, the bond is so strong it actually removes the wood too.

 

5 of the cannon ports removed, I think there are 15 on each side, but the other 10 are covered with hatches, so you only see 5 cannons a side.

 

Still have to cut the cannon holes.

 

Still have to trim the stern, and remove the holes for the stern gallery.

 

 

 

You can see one of the holes for the stern gallery cut ( top Left ), the hole in the center is for rudder. If you look in the right margin of this blog you can see the completed stern of the ship, with the railings and door, one of the highlights of the ship.

 

I have a few hours of sanding and filling, not really much filling, the planks are nice and tight. Once that is done, the fun starts.......

 

The next steps in the instruction are to line the inside of the bulwarks, stringers, and rubbing rails.

 

 

You can see the two rubbing rails, good thing they are apple wood, when I first looked at it, thought they were mahogany, and I don't have any left. If you look close at the instruction sheet, the lower run of cannon holes, the second from the front. Look up from there, and notice the small section of planking, the small 2.5mm sticking up. Now scroll up and look at my pictures, both side of my ship these are missing. Really not missing, but broke off. So if you plan on building this ship take care when planking, these break easy. No big deal to glue them back on, you will never know, but just something else to do.

 

This shows the liners for the inside, remember the 10mm deck liners, same thing.

 

Thanks for all the emails, and comments. Will get back to it and hopefully have it sanded, and lined in the next couple days.

 

 

Planking the Hull

I said I wasn't going to work on the hull last post, but I decided to get her done. We're almost there, should be today, at least having the wood on it. The sanding will still have to be done. OK, I have to say I have had some problems, the kits contents, including the mahogany planks I am using now where under stocked, in other word I didn't get enough. The ones I did get there were only about 2/3 of those that were usable. I knew this when I did my inventory when I opened it. I have been in contact with the manufacture, and that's we're it stands. I do believe they will resolve this issue, but they are in Spain, with the shipping time, the translation when emailing, etc. Making it all most impossible. I am on a tight schedule with this and had to cover the hull the best I could. It still looks good, just not as realistic as it could be. After all that's really what you are trying to do, make a model look as close to the real ship as possible. Thank goodness the guy I am building it for understands, and really doesn't care. Like I said before, not many people will even know that there are mistakes.

 I was missing most of the nails, 2 spools of thread for the sails, and the 2 x 5 x 500mm planks. Let me say this, out of the 6 or 7 kits I have bought from them, this is the first time I have ever had a problem. I will still continue to buy their kits, everyone makes a mistake. I will keep everyone informed of the progress, I hope they make things right.

So..... Here's the ship so far, hopefully I get it covered today, if I don't run out of wood it really going to be close.

So this is where we are now.

Started to trim the sides and cut a few cannon ports, on this side.

 

I got about 15 more planks to put on, then will start the sanding......

 

 

I know its getting a little old looking at the hull over and over again, will be done soon, if I got enough planks. Then the fun begins, we get to start putting on all the fine details.....

 



Half the hull covered

Half the Hull is covered.

This is a lot of work each plank is held to the bulkheads with two nails, that need to be pre-drilled, and glued. I am writing another post to explain the planking process, but will give a general overview now. The idea of planking is to have the planks run horizontal across the entire distance of the ship. This of course becomes a problem because the bulkheads very in size. You have to measure the bulkheads, a seamstress tape works well, as you are measuring a curved surface.

Measure all the bulkheads, from the bulwark to the bottom of the keel, and write the number down on a sheet of paper. In my case the measurements were from front to back, I guess I should say, from the bow to the stern, 55mm, 75mm, 100mm, the next 4 were 105mm, then 100 and 100mm. Then measure the width of the plank, these are 5mm, approx., the very from 5.2 to 4.8, so five is the average. So, if you do the math you can see that 21 planks will fit the 4 largest frames, but getting them to fit into the 55mm frame is impossible. So you will have to tapper the planks or use drop planks, stealers, and wedges. Again, I am working on a complete post describing these processes.

Lets get back to the ship, as the post says I am about half done.

You can see in the picture above the front isn't closed, you have to cut that out anyway, so I wasn't worried about having them touch. You do have to be concerned about them lining them up.

You have to really pick the wood you are using for the first 4-5 planks, make sure there are no knots in the wood, that is a major bend, and they snap easy.

You can see I write the length of the frame on it, and the tick marks for the width of the planks. I haven't started tapering the planks in the picture, but the next planks will be, a rule of thumb when tapering them is to not exceed 1/2 the width. So in my case no planks will be less the 2.5mm.

Here are a few more photo's of the ship so far.

You can see some of the nail heads cut off in this pic. still have to shape and sand will wait until the hull is complete.

Three of the cannon ports cut away. I think at this point, I will again put it off to the side and grab the instruction book. I need another break from this. I think I will do the railing for the stern, not really sure, anything but planking the hull.

Helmsman's Cabin

After working on the hull for the last 2-3 days, I started going crazy, a sure tell tale sign that it was time to move to something else. It's a good idea, for me anyway, to take a few hours away, to clear my mind. I start to take short cuts, and get sloppy.....

I like to take a break, by doing some of the smaller things you need to get done anyway. There's a ton of it. Things like the Helmsman's cabin......

Kind of an easy little 4 sided cabin, with a slight curve in the roof.

The main structure is made of 5 parts prefab plywood.

Got to take your time gluing the sides, as the front to the back tapers by approx. 1.5cm., you want to try to maintain that angle.

I had to steam the roof, to get the bend required to fit the sides.

After sanding to clean up the edges you are ready to cover it.

You will use the .6 x 5mm Mahogany, we used to cover the bulkheads, and a 2 x 2mm stick of Ramin

I did the front and the back first. Covering the hatchway.

Then the two sides, I wanted the overlap to be on the front, when the ship is displayed, you wont be able to see the darker edge grain.

After the glue dries, I put the roof on. I drew a center line, then worked the covering to the edges.

Once the roof and side are completely dried you can clean the edges with 180 grit sandpaper. This covering is so thin you have to really take your time or it will crack.

Then I opened out the hatchway, with a fine tooth jewelers file.

Now that the sides are square, you can put the 2 x 2mm Ramin around the roof. They also had to get bent, so in the water they go.

Then I noticed that you could see some of the white plywood on the bottom run of the hatchway. This step could be left out, but I think small details like this make the difference in a well constructed model.

I cut a small piece of the Mahogany....

Then glued it into place.

Cut and sand it to shape.

After the front and back are glued in place, I did the sides.

Sanded it to fit.

Now all that's is left to do is finish sanding with 320 grit, and apply the finish. Off to the side it goes as you don't glue it into place until you get the hull finished.

This will give you an idea of where it goes and how it will look when on the ship.

Now, with a renewed interested I will start back on planking the hull.