Some Stern and Hull Work

Before moving on to the stanchions, I did a bit of additional work to the stern, as well as some outer hull details.

 

The first step was to raise the height of the transom slightly - the side of the poop deck will be raised once the stanchions are added, so the transom needed to be made about 1 plank width higher (not sure why the template wasn't made higher to begin with).

 

After adding the plank, I sanded and stained the inner portion to match the rest of the interior.

 

With the inside done, I moved on to the outside of the stern, starting with adding a couple of planks underneath the transom before planking the rest of the transom.

 

The transom ready for staining (the edges trimmed and sanded), I created the 3 rear windows.  The only difference between these and the other windows is that they were all done as one piece instead of individually.  The instructions also called for making the white frames narrower than the other ones by cutting the strips in half, but I didn't have much luck when I tried that, so I just used the full width.

See the gap above the first plank?  The plank was supposed to cover part of the white frame, but I miscalculated so filled it using a thin strip I had left over from something else; it turned out pretty good.

All the wood trimmed along the edges and almost ready for staining.  As you can probably see from the pictures, there were some gaps at the tops of the cross pieces I added between the windows - I later used a bit of wood filler on these.

 

 

 

With everything else ready for staining, there were just a couple more details to add: 4 "knees" between the windows and the treenails.

 

 

After much thought, I decided to go with Colonial Walnut for the hull - I had originally thought about using Puritan Pine (an oil based stain), but after trying this out on some scrap wood, decided to go with it instead (it is water based, so easier to clean up and dries quicker).

 

The stern with some temporary "fillers" added to the windows so I don't stain those by mistake, and some masking tape to give me a clean line for when I paint the bottom portion of the hull white.

After the first coat, I noticed some really bad blotches from the glue (when attaching the planks, some of the glue leaked through and I think I wiped it clean); I'm trying to be careful with the glue, but obviously still not careful enough...

I sanded the top part down and then re-stained it, but it is still not perfect (the worst blotch looks almost like the NE Patriot's logo).  I will probably go back and try to clean it up a bit more when it is time to stain the rest of the hull.  I got some good advice from some fellow modellers on how to avoid this in the future (be more careful with the glue, try using wood glue instead of CA, stain the planks before gluing them in place, etc.).  When it comes time to do the rest of the hull, I am going to go with the last suggestion and try staining the planks first.

The lower part of the stern didn't turn out too bad (at least for a novice at staining wood) and I'm happy with how the darker stain looks.

The stern done for now, I glued the stem, keel and stern post in place while I can still get at the bottom fairly easily; once I start adding the stanchions, it will be more "dangerous" to turn the ship over, as the top part will be more fragile then it is right now.

 

The stem added to the bow (I still need to add the hooks to the beakhead doors):

 

The keel:

  

The stern post  in place (I just noticed that black blotch... I'll have to fix that before I start painting):

 

 

Before I paint it, I also need to do a little bit of touch up, like filling any gaps and trimming where the stern post and keel meet, but I'll get to those later (it will still be a while before it is time to paint).

 

While I could still flip the ship over, I also did some prep work for attaching the ship to the stand that came with the kit, such as marking and drilling the holes for the screws in the stand and the keel.  Below are some shots of roughly how it will look (it is not screwed in place yet); I got the spacing of the 2 pedestals from pictures of some finished versions by other builders.

 

  

 

 

 

Bulwark Templates

With the deck bulkheads mostly all in place, it was time to once again clean up my work area a bit before moving onto the bulwark templates.

 

Basically, the bulwark templates are two laser cut pieces of thin wood which are used to help form the shape of the upper hull.  You may remember I actually used them way back to align the first of the hull planking; now it is time to do some work on them and then attach them permanently to the upper hull.

 

The first step was to plank the sides which will face inward (the outside will be done later).  This was pretty straight-forward as, for the most part, I used full length strips.  After shading the edges, it was just a matter of bending them to match the curve of the template.  The first one on each template took a bit of work to get just right, and after that they all fell into place.

 

As you can see, there were a few strips on each side where I didn't use full strips - these were where I had to do some trimming to allow the strips to fit nicely around the holes in the template.  This was much easier then using a full strip and trying to get all the holes lined up, and the joints will be mostly hidden later below one of the decks I'll be extending; I cut one of the joints at the opposite angle by mistake, but since it will be hidden...

 

 

Once they were both planked, I trimmed the edges a bit and then stained them the same colour as the decking.

 

Once they were both ready, I attached them.  This was tricky as the curve needed to follow the top hull plank I had added earlier, and the shape had to align with the various deck bulkheads. Getting them exactly where I needed them and holding them in place took a bit of work, but it turned out pretty good.

 

Attaching the first side:

The stern attached, complete with windows created the same way I did the other ones, and glued to the inner side of the templates.  To be honest, I forgot to do them... but I was having problems with the template sticking, so was able to add them in later...  I still forgot to paint it black behind them... luckily the bottom windows are over a gap in the hull bulkheads, so it is naturally dark, and the upper don't look too bad...

 Attaching the first side:

 

 

 
 Both sides attached:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After they were attached and the glue had dried (after a day or two), I used wood filler to fill the gaps between the templates and the first of the hull planks and also to smooth out the curve a bit where they met (once attached, the templates were about a millimetre wider then the original planking).  The entire upper section will be covered with a second layer of planking later, so I'm not worried about the amount of wood filler as it will all be sanded smooth and really isn't that much, despite how the pictures look (it's a little wide, but thin).

 

 

 

 

Next up was fixing the bow.  If you recall, the top plank on one side wasn't quite even, so I filled it in with a scrap plank, then added another plank to both sides to bring it up to the level of the bow's deck (the beakhead).

 

Planks added, with a bit of wood filler:

 

 

 Test fitting the beakhead bulkhead (say that 5 times fast...):

Adding the deck to the beakhead:

 

 

After trimming the planks and adding the treenails (I've also stained it, but don't have any pictures of the finished deck):