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Bluenose Model Shipways 1:64 Beautiful ship

Rob, how are you doing with this flipping blizzard? We have 16 inches on the ground here, so I think the forecast for 18 to 24 will be exceeded. Fortunately, still have power. You have to love these Nor Easters...imagine a square rigger in this stuff? (Barnstable on Cape Cod)
Now back to sanding the bow down on the Lobster Smack.
 
11320 Titanic said:
Rob, how are you doing with this flipping blizzard? We have 16 inches on the ground here, so I think the forecast for 18 to 24 will be exceeded. Fortunately, still have power. You have to love these Nor Easters...imagine a square rigger in this stuff? (Barnstable on Cape Cod)
Now back to sanding the bow down on the Lobster Smack.
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Don, We are actually down in sunny Tucson for a month. I set up a nice shop here and am working on my Bluenose here. Will keep it here and work on it while in Tucson. Suppose to get up to 80 today (12 degrees above average). However my son is in our place in Connecticut. We must have at least that amount of snow, plus it is drifting.

This has been some winter. We got at lest 18 inches there last month, as you are well aware. I am sure those square rigger would have an absolutely minimal amount of canvas out in weather like this! Thank God for technology!

Rob
 
Years ago, when our Boy Scout Troup from Oklahoma went to "The Boundary Waters" in northern Minnesota, for a canoe trip, on the way home some of the boys were flirting with young female clerk at gas stop, asked her "Why do your houses have doors in the second floor wall?", she replied, like how else do you think we get out after the big snow blizzards and 10" of snow drift!
 
Kurt Konrath said:
Years ago, when our Boy Scout Troup from Oklahoma went to "The Boundary Waters" in northern Minnesota, for a canoe trip, on the way home some of the boys were flirting with young female clerk at gas stop, asked her "Why do your houses have doors in the second floor wall?", she replied, like how else do you think we get out after the big snow blizzards and 10" of snow drift!
Click to expand...
Wow, avoid Minnesota in the winter!
 
I have now planked down to the sternpost of the ship. Most people at this point start to work from the keel upward (of course things are reversed since the ship is flipped over)

In his build Gary Brinker used 1/4 X 1/16" planks for his garboard. He actually used 2 rows of these bigger boards. I think I will do one for the Garboard and then go back to the 1/8 X 1/16 planks. The plans show the garboard extending from the sternpost to almost the E bulkhead. I have some 1/16" sheet and I cut out 2 planks from it.

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I then used a paper cutout to trace the taper of the garboard onto the planks. The edge of the planks were beveled. I then soaked the planks in hot water and clamped it into place to help shape it. Once everything dried I glued it and clamped it into place.

IMG_1803.jpeg

I will now have to start to taper the other planks. I guess it is time to do some measurements.
 
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I have a flexible ruler to help measure.
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The widest area looks to be a little more than 1.5 inches or about 13 strakes. On this area of the Bluenose it really does not taper much before you get to bulkhead F from the rear. I will taper the next few strakes up from the garboard to end where they have them positioned and then see where things settle.
 
Rob444 said:
I have a flexible ruler to help measure.
View attachment 581192
The widest area looks to be a little more than 1.5 inches or about 13 strakes. On this area of the Bluenose it really does not taper much before you get to bulkhead F from the rear. I will taper the next few strakes up from the garboard to end where they have them positioned and then see where things settle.
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Good morning Rob. Planking looks might fine indeed. Kudos. Cheers Grant
 
I am gradually adding planks upwards and downwards. I have placed a few planks "above" the garboard ending them where the plans would have them end. Since the bow is a little tighter in space than the stern, I have been slightly tapering each plank hoping that this will reduce the need for any stealer planks. so far both upper and lower planking look pretty parallel to each other.

IMG_1820.jpeg

With the space between the upper and lower planking getting narrower, it will soon be too narrow to use the modified binder clamps. Not too sure exactly what to do then, but we will see what happens.

While i was waiting for some planks to set in place, I trimmed the planks at the end of the transom and sanded them even with the blocks in the stern.

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As the old saying goes "necessity is the mother of invention". The small modified binder clips have kind of run out of room. I had bought some smaller "mini" binder clips, but I discovered that the "handle" portion of those clips were not long enough to slide into position to be used as clamps. With a little experimentation, however, I did find that the "handles" of the small clips could be used in the mini binder clips.

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This will allow me to get a few extra rows of planks in to place.
 
I am getting down to the last 4 strakes on each side. I took 4 loose boards and ran them along the opening left.

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They are a bit narrower than the 4 strakes in the bow, however I believe with the slight tapering I am doing with each strake they will fit nicely. The stern is a bit wide but certainly not glaringly so. I may have to put like a quarter board "steeler" in the rear. All in all things are not as bad as I thought they would be. Of course the Bluenose has very gentle curves in the hull which makes it an easier planking job. (I hope)
 
Getting down to the last 2 rows of strakes, I ran out of room to use any more mini clamps. What i did is hold the strakes in by using small nails to hold the wet boards in place. I placed the nails on the edge of the strake. I also used "flipped over" clothespins that I have made and used for previous builds to act as wedges to hold the strakes in place. Once they dried I removed the nails, ran some glue on the edges and repeated the process.

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It now came time for the last plank. Here is the last remaining space.
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you can see how it flairs a small amount in the middle. The bow end had to be tapered more than I usually tapered the other planks. I basically slowly sanded the edge by the bow until the plank fit exactly. The plank was still more than 50% of its width, which I was pleased about. The stern end fit almost perfectly. There was a small about 1/16 inch space in the middle.

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I glued this final strake into place. You can see 3 small nails holding it where the gap is.
 
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To fill in the gap, I took a very thin probably 1/16" piece of deck planking into the space. This fit well and I glued it into place.

IMG_1834.jpeg

Once this was set in place I used an x-acto chisel blade and planned down the board.

IMG_1833.jpeg

This area was then sanded and the planking is finished.

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It was very surprising and gratifying that both sided were essentially symmetrical, both needing that small filler board to finish up.. I believe that the reason things went so well was two fold, a simple hull and trimming about 1/32 of an inch off each 4 or so inches of the bow area of each plank, Beveling the plank edges where they abutted up to the preceding plank probably also helped.
 
Rob444 said:
To fill in the gap, I took a very thin probably 1/16" piece of deck planking into the space. This fit well and I glued it into place.

View attachment 582806

Once this was set in place I used an x-acto chisel blade and planned down the board.

View attachment 582807

This area was then sanded and the planking is finished.

View attachment 582808

It was very surprising and gratifying that both sided were essentially symmetrical, both needing that small filler board to finish up.. I believe that the reason things went so well was two fold, a simple hull and trimming about 1/32 of an inch off each 4 or so inches of the bow area of each plank, Beveling the plank edges where they abutted up to the preceding plank probably also helped.
Click to expand...
Congratulations on reaching this milestone, Rob. With all the curves, it's always quite a challenge.
Regards, Peter
 
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