Bluenose - Scientific Kit No. 164 (1:64 scale)

[UrkVisser]

Hi! I'm new here and had this Scientific Kit No. 164 - Bluenose in 1:64 scale sitting around for the last 32 years or so still yet unfinished. The instructions are very vague and I had no idea how to start rigging it plus it's forward mast had warped with age.

But now there is internet plus AI (GPT-40 mini) has been a great help in answering all my ship building questions. I'm now retired and have the time to finish it plus physical limitations have made standing at my two train layouts (1:160 and 1:78 scales) pretty difficult lately. Therefore I enjoy sitting in the dining room (where it's a lot warmer) and working on my model ships instead.

The hull came as a 4" x 4" " 24" piece of wood which was roughed in but still was very difficult to bring into shape. The deck and other parts are balsa wood. Of course the masts, gaffs and booms are hardwood plus there are several cast metal detail parts including a dory (actually there were suppose to be two dorries plus a pack of fibre blocks included which my kit failed).

After I started the rigging and installed the shrouds the crooked forward mast came back into form pretty good.

According to the instructions the rat lines were to be glued to the shrouds which took forever but now that is completed.

So I'm starting to sew the sails from the thin beige 'oil cloth of sorts' which was included.

I was able to sew the vertical lines in the sails by 'navigating' by the left edge of my zig zag foot and setting my needle slightly off center so each run would give me a 1/4" inbetween these vertical rows. I used a very sharp number 75 needle and short stitches. At first my machine's foot didn't want to feed this thin material but reducing the stitch length made it finally 'behave.' I sewed the outer edges if the sail with my straight stitch foot.

(I might add here both my great grandfather and grandfather on my mom's side of the family where both tailors therefore I'm a good hobby tailor.)

I'll add more to this story as things progress.

Best Regards, UrkVisser

 

[RDN1954]

Hello Urk,

Welcome to the Bluenose building community.
I think you've gotten yourself a rare Bluenose model, nice.
Maybe the following might help you out a little bit:
- Dories; Billing Boats also has a 1:64 kit, you might be able to order a set of those: https://www.hobbydirekt.de/Neuheite...90-MM-2-STK-Robbe-1-BF0192-BF0192::79959.html
- By appearances, it is as if the cloth you are using is quite thick, relatively speaking. For my 1:72 scale Bluenose I used Amati cloth, darkened to match my taste and, although not proficient on a sowing machine, I managed to get a set of very acceptable sails.

Good luck with your Bluenose model.

 

[UrkVisser]

- Dories; Billing Boats also has a 1:64 kit, you might be able to order a set of those.

Thanks for the advice about the dorries! Krick also sells them in a set of two but are only 3D printed. They are about 163 mm long x 24 mm wide which are too wide for the deck of my schooner (20 mm would be OK).

Yes, this is a very old kit: I bought it in 1991 from a shop in the US and I think he had it on his shelf for at least
25 years. (I paid about 74 Dollars for it.)

They were popular kits in the 1950's and 1960's but are not up to date with today's technical standards but still a nice kit.

And As fate had it, this model schooner was packed into a ship's container and along with other stuff made a trip across the Atlantic from Baltimore to Rotterdam and then onward to Hamburg.

Yes, the sail cloth included in the kit is very stiff but it is thin. It's avantage is that it is impregnated and thereby has a ravel free edge. Also it should be easy to brush the dust off of it.

The thing is do I want to keep this kit an original build or make it nicer sails out of an old, white 'Oxford Broadcloth' office shirt? I may use these sails as patterns and make some soft, white sails instead. But I do have a 'lifetime supply' of beige thread to use up. (Of course my wife and kids always come to 'Papa' for their clothing repairs and alteration needs!)

I ordered some rigging supplies for this schooner which should arrive here next week. But also included is a 'Mantua' 1:25 scale Hoogaars fishing vessel kit 'ARM 82'. Since there is such a Zuiderzee Hoogaars or Botter fishing vessel on display in every church in Urk, Netherlands I was very envious and had to have one of my own! Haha!

So I have a lot to write about later!
Best Regards, mvg, UrkVisser

 

[Peter Voogt]

Always nice to see the build of another Bluenose under sail.
Regards, Peter

 

[UrkVisser]

Hi everybody!
Well I didn't like the looks of this beige 'oil cloth' type impregnated sail material which came with the kit after all. So today I made a new set of sails out of an old white 'Oxford Broadcloth' shirt (the one I got married in way back when).

This material is cotton with a tight weave but is very light, very flexible and pretty much iron free (as a shirt anyway). I also ironed them nicely with steam.

Alas, now I have the chore of double straight stitching the edges & then adding the rows of 'stripes'. The diagonals on the jibs are tricky!

I'll work on this tomorrow when my wife is at work so I'll have free reign of the dining room table.



Best Regards, UrkVisser

 

[RDN1954]

My guess is you will enjoy your new sails.

 

[UrkVisser]

My guess is you will enjoy your new sails.

Well, they look nice but this Oxford cloth ravels on it's edge really bad!
I tried hemming the edge of one small sail by folding over 1/8" along it's edges and sewing it with a very fine needle size 60 (or 8 in the US). I've made my own shirts and pants before but this sail project is really frustrating!

So I decided to cut 1/8" strips of fabric reinforcing material (like used on the inside of shirt collars) and tack gluing it onto the edge of the sail with 'fabric glue' (a thin rubber cement of sorts) and then straight stitching them on along their edges. I'll do two rows of straight stitching and then the vertical rows (or diagonals on the jibs).

But it's already after 14:00 here and I need a break!

Best Regards, UrkVisser

 

[UrkVisser]

So, now I took a break and then solved the problem with the Oxford cloth's unstable edges: I cut strips of fabric interfacing material 1/8" wide and glued them to the sail edges (on both sides). I used a fabric glue called "Gütermann - HT2" which a type of rubber cement but crystal clear and fast drying. It's made for such problems.

So now the unstable Oxford edges are 'sandwiched' between the two interfacing strips and when dry can be stitch over.

My interfacing rows also create nice, stable edges to hand sew the sails to the gaffs, booms and so forth later.

But I'll wait until tomorrow to sew the sails. Tonight I'll glue interfacing strips on both sides of all 8 sails.



Best Regards, UrkVisser

 

[RDN1954]

Well, they look nice but this Oxford cloth ravels on it's edge really bad!
I tried hemming the edge of one small sail by folding over 1/8" along it's edges and sewing it with a very fine needle size 60 (or 8 in the US). I've made my own shirts and pants before but this sail project is really frustrating!

So I decided to cut 1/8" strips of fabric reinforcing material (like used on the inside of shirt collars) and tack gluing it onto the edge of the sail with 'fabric glue' (a thin rubber cement of sorts) and then straight stitching them on along their edges. I'll do two rows of straight stitching and then the vertical rows (or diagonals on the jibs).

But it's already after 14:00 here and I need a break!

Best Regards, UrkVisser

What helped me, prior to sewing, was to apply a 50-50 water-woodglue solution to the cloth. While it didn’t totally prevent unraveling, it was sufficient to be able to sew the edges, without too much fuss.

 

[UrkVisser]

I just completed the big Gaff Sail aft; sewing the vertical seams to scale took me 2 or 2 1/2 hours. But a half hour of that was sewing machine repair after my bobbin assembly flew apart and broke the needle. Removing several oil stained tiny stitches also took their time. But now my first Oxford cloth sail is finished. I only have to add the two rows of tie downs and knot them. Maybe I'll use tan thread so they show up better and are not confused with 'loose ends' to visitors.



Now it's finally bed time. Zzzz!!!

Best Regards, UrkVisser

 

[Mike D]

Hi! I'm new here and had this Scientific Kit No. 164 - Bluenose in 1:64 scale sitting around for the last 32 years or so still yet unfinished. The instructions are very vague and I had no idea how to start rigging it plus it's forward mast had warped with age.

But now there is internet plus AI (GPT-40 mini) has been a great help in answering all my ship building questions. I'm now retired and have the time to finish it plus physical limitations have made standing at my two train layouts (1:160 and 1:78 scales) pretty difficult lately. Therefore I enjoy sitting in the dining room (where it's a lot warmer) and working on my model ships instead.

The hull came as a 4" x 4" " 24" piece of wood which was roughed in but still was very difficult to bring into shape. The deck and other parts are balsa wood. Of course the masts, gaffs and booms are hardwood plus there are several cast metal detail parts including a dory (actually there were suppose to be two dorries plus a pack of fibre blocks included which my kit failed).

After I started the rigging and installed the shrouds the crooked forward mast came back into form pretty good.

According to the instructions the rat lines were to be glued to the shrouds which took forever but now that is completed.

So I'm starting to sew the sails from the thin beige 'oil cloth of sorts' which was included.

I was able to sew the vertical lines in the sails by 'navigating' by the left edge of my zig zag foot and setting my needle slightly off center so each run would give me a 1/4" inbetween these vertical rows. I used a very sharp number 75 needle and short stitches. At first my machine's foot didn't want to feed this thin material but reducing the stitch length made it finally 'behave.' I sewed the outer edges if the sail with my straight stitch foot.

(I might add here both my great grandfather and grandfather on my mom's side of the family where both tailors therefore I'm a good hobby tailor.)

I'll add more to this story as things progress.

Best Regards, UrkVisserView attachment 502832View attachment 502839View attachment 502840

View attachment 502845

Hi Urk,
I live in Noank Ct. which was a small fishing and boat building village. I bought this kit around 1987, started shaping the hull then put it down until just this winter. Your work looks fantastic!! Since I had parts missing, sails stained etc. I went on the internet looking for the same kit and found one on eBay and bought it just to get parts. Spent $35. I have a lot of experience building plastic model structures for my HO train layout (20’ x 11’) which sadly has been dismantled because of moving to a smaller house but I have little experience in wood. I have one question: how did you determine the scale of this model? I can’t find it on the drawing. Also, I am considering making new, very realistic sails following video(s) by master builder Tom Lauria who like to use silkspan material. Take a look at his other videos which give marvelous techniques for building all aspects of wooden model boat building. His series on building a whale boat is inspiring.
Take care and thanks,
Mike Dwyer

 

[UrkVisser]

Hi Mike!
I discussed the various measurements of the model and the original schooner with the AI GPT-40 Mini & it came with 1:64. Thats also logical because it's 'Kit No. 164'. But finding 1:64 (S Scale) merchant marine or fishing trawler crew figures for it is as good as impossible. But H0 figures may look OK.

According to AI the ship's wheel should be 5 or 6 feet across. Whereas Bluenose II has a small wheel due to hydraulic assist. So a H0 figure would still look OK at the wheel.

But I found she's a bit to narrow in the middle for 1:64 and the dorry is too small. I may construct two more larger dorries and set the little one back near the cabin as a launch.

Gluing the rat lines to the shrouds to scale was also a chore!

Now I'm sitting at my sewing machine making sails out of an old white shirt.

Greetings! UrkVisser

 

[MGYSOS]

Looking Good! Keep up the good work. I could never fine the right cloth to use for sails, and I tired various. I finally wound up making my sail for the Gertrude L. Thebaud out of tracing paper.

 

[UrkVisser]

Hi everybody!
It's a quiet Sunday and I'm back to making sails again.

Here is the complete set of Oxford Broadcloth sails. (Only 4 in this photo are finished including sewing the gore seams in them.)


These all have a thin strip of 320 interfacing material (like in nice shirt collars) 1/8" wide on both sides of the sails' edges in order to 'sandwich in' the Oxford which would have raveled straight away if not.

I spent over two and a half hours working on the Main Jib today and it looks nice.



Here is a comparison to a Jib I made out of the impregnated 'oil cloth type' material which came with the kit. Too bad it's so stiff and dark toned.



The white Oxford definitely has more 'life' in it.

It took 27 stitch operations to sew this and my stitch length is 1/32".
(Removing such tiny stitches was very tedious when a few defects occured!)

I still have complete the Stay Sail, Small Jib and the Fisherman's Topsail.

So back to my sewing machine, Bye!
UrkVisser

 

[UrkVisser]

I managed to also get the smaller jib finished today which was really tricky sewing the gore seams.

Good Night! Urkvisser

 

[UrkVisser]

Hi everybody!
It's now Monday afternoon and I just completed the last two sails. The Stay Sail is seen here below.



And here is the Fisherman's Top Sail.




These two sails turned out great with out any problems.

Here is a what was a great help in sewing them:
A clear plastic foot with an arrow allowing full vision and you only have to watch what's ahead of the arrow and not the needle.



And my other favorite is the clear plastic foot with metal rollers. This is a great help with some lighter fabrics but the front roller blocks your view a bit. But there is a little indentation up front so you only need to watch that and not the needle.


I also prefer simple mechanical sewing machines and this one for about 100 € even has a stitch width control. This is very important because in the straight stitch mode it shifts the needle left or right as needed.

So I navigate by the left side of the foot and set the needle to the desired width from this edge with a ruler. Then I only have to watch right ahead, left of the foot and not the needle. This is a great help in sewing the gore seams because no pencil marks are needed on the white Oxford cloth. And each row of stitches hold the perfect width from one another.

My favorite machine.



Yes, and a break for tea and my homemade whole grain Spelt buns!

Best Regards, UrkVisser