Quick question for everyone… Is there a name for the railings between decks or are they just called railings?
Buccaneer 1:100 by Occre - Build log
5/17 to 5/28
Been back in Vallarta about a week and finally pulled the Molino out. Just too many things going on to find some free time before today.
Started by putting the three wales on the stern and then put felt on the stand.
Making some minor modifications to the plans in regards to the ladders and to the railings.
First off there is not any ladders to the poop deck so I’m going to add one. I’ve known for a bit I was going to add one, and had been wondering about making one but instead I decided that I would take one of the two that went to the fore deck. This gives me one ladder to each deck.
The plans also do not have any railings on the fore or on poop decks so I’ll be adding them.
The ladders are approximately 9mm so I’m creating railings that will leave 10mm openings. I’ll place all three of the ladders on the port side.
I cut some 2mm x 7mm boards to create the bottom and top of each of the three railings and then 2mm x 2mm to make the balusters - the front two are 8mm while the one on the poop deck is only 5mm to align with the gunwale. All are stained walnut.
I glue the bottom of each railings to the deck, and the balusters to them. There are 6 on both railings on the fore and quarter decks; the poop deck only has 5.
Once dried, I glued the tops onto the balusters.
Onto (or back to) the wales. The next wale (4th down on the back half of the ship) is made with 2mm x 4mm board and runs from the balcony to the front of the foredeck, just below the bottom of the gun ports. While there is some curve “around” the ship (on the 2mm side), the more difficult bend is on the 4mm side as it curves beneath the gun ports. I put a number of straight pins into the board and then put a piece of masking tape under where the wake will be positioned. The tape is only to help keep glue off of the rest of the hull. Working from the stern to the bow, I position the wale and then push the pins in. At the overhang on the bow, I hold it in place with a rubber band and a small clamp.
While doing this, I ended up breaking the railings off around the foredeck as I mistakenly used it for leverage to hold/position the wale. Just another example of “it” being wood and glue and is an easy repair.
The wale on the starboard side was a bit easier and even though I tried to be careful with the railings on the foredeck, I again broke it and had to repair.
So if I had one mulligan for this portion, it would be to not build the railings until after the wales were completed.
While waiting for the glue to dry before going after the next wale, I thought try painting the gunport frames and lids. After seeing a build log with some after market frames and lids, I decided to give them a try. These are not provided by OcCre.
I start with some primer.
Then I paint the lids in much the way I painted the doors; adding a little paint in various spots using 5 different browns.
The frames are painted a dark brown.
Once the lids were fully dried, I added a wash of brown over everything to hide the primer.
To wrap them up, I painted “hinges” on both the lids and frames black. I want them to be noticeable, but not to stand out.
Overall they look ok, but not as good as the doors do.
I cut and stain the 4 remaining wales and bend them at the bow. While bending them my electronic bending iron broke. The metal shaft has always be wobbly but today it just broke off. Given I had only bent one of the four wales I was at as bit of a standstill. Sure I could buy a soldering iron down here in Mexico but I already have 2 of them at home so I don’t have to buy one if I don’t have to.
And then I remembered seeing at least one person using an actual clothes iron to bend boards so I gave it a try. And it worked. It didn’t give me as much control but it actually was faster.
They all needed a little touch up with the stain. Not sure why I stained them before bending, but I did.
While waiting for the touch up stain to dry I started working on the small wales at the very bow of the ship. There are actually 3 on each side that use 2mm x 2mm boards. A little measuring, sanding, and staining and they go on fairly smoothly.
The lower wales turned out to be challenging for me for at least two reasons…
It’s all about the curve at the bow. I can’t get the wale to stay tight against the hull. I can get one portion but then I realize it’s pulled away in another area. I decide to just work on parts of the bow and once it is dry, I’ll work on the rest.
To help hold the very front tip of the wale in place, I attached a small board to the top of the bow stem, leaving a gap the thickness of the wale. This plus a few pins and a couple of rubber bands gets the front inch or two to hold tight.
Once dried, the rest is easy to glue in place. To keep a consistent distance between the two wales I use a 8mm board as a spacer.
It probably took about 4 hours of actual work-time to get the 2 wales on the starboard side done.
For the port side, I’m going to use my freshly learned technique and attach a small board to the bow stem to keep the front tip-off the wale snuggly against the hull. I then puta number of pins into each wale, and the put glue on the front two inches. I put them into place (which is a lot easier since I removed the railings), and push the first few pins into the hull and then put a couple of rubber bands over the front curve.
The remaining portions of the wales go very smoothly.
I add in the beam for the emergency rudder chains but due to my modification of adding chase guns, the beam has to sit higher and be made with three pieces of board. One on each side and then a third between the 2 balcony supports. Since the beam can’t sit at the same height as the bottom wale, I add a small section of stained board right above the wale from the rear of the balcony to the stern.
I wrap up the wales by attaching the 4 vertical wales between the gun ports on each side.
It takes about an hour or so to clean up everything up; cutting, trimming, sanding, and staining on all the various wales.
Next up is staining portions of the top of the hull and somehow I manage to stain a little bit too much. So even though I like to say just about anything can be fixed because “it’s only wood and glue”, I found something that can’t be. Decorations go in this area at a later stage so it will end up being a minor thing.
My time this season in Vallarta is coming to an end, and I kept holding off on posting this in the hope I’d get more completed. I still may, but thought I’d post this now. I hate putting the Molino away until I’m back in October, but that just means that I get to start working on my Bluenose again.
So when I return, it’s time for the hull decorations, the windows, the door, and varnishing the hull.
Time for this portion: 18.5 hours
Total time to date: 163.5 hours
Been back in Vallarta about a week and finally pulled the Molino out. Just too many things going on to find some free time before today.
Started by putting the three wales on the stern and then put felt on the stand.
Making some minor modifications to the plans in regards to the ladders and to the railings.
First off there is not any ladders to the poop deck so I’m going to add one. I’ve known for a bit I was going to add one, and had been wondering about making one but instead I decided that I would take one of the two that went to the fore deck. This gives me one ladder to each deck.
The plans also do not have any railings on the fore or on poop decks so I’ll be adding them.
The ladders are approximately 9mm so I’m creating railings that will leave 10mm openings. I’ll place all three of the ladders on the port side.
I cut some 2mm x 7mm boards to create the bottom and top of each of the three railings and then 2mm x 2mm to make the balusters - the front two are 8mm while the one on the poop deck is only 5mm to align with the gunwale. All are stained walnut.
I glue the bottom of each railings to the deck, and the balusters to them. There are 6 on both railings on the fore and quarter decks; the poop deck only has 5.
Once dried, I glued the tops onto the balusters.
Onto (or back to) the wales. The next wale (4th down on the back half of the ship) is made with 2mm x 4mm board and runs from the balcony to the front of the foredeck, just below the bottom of the gun ports. While there is some curve “around” the ship (on the 2mm side), the more difficult bend is on the 4mm side as it curves beneath the gun ports. I put a number of straight pins into the board and then put a piece of masking tape under where the wake will be positioned. The tape is only to help keep glue off of the rest of the hull. Working from the stern to the bow, I position the wale and then push the pins in. At the overhang on the bow, I hold it in place with a rubber band and a small clamp.
While doing this, I ended up breaking the railings off around the foredeck as I mistakenly used it for leverage to hold/position the wale. Just another example of “it” being wood and glue and is an easy repair.
The wale on the starboard side was a bit easier and even though I tried to be careful with the railings on the foredeck, I again broke it and had to repair.
So if I had one mulligan for this portion, it would be to not build the railings until after the wales were completed.
While waiting for the glue to dry before going after the next wale, I thought try painting the gunport frames and lids. After seeing a build log with some after market frames and lids, I decided to give them a try. These are not provided by OcCre.
I start with some primer.
Then I paint the lids in much the way I painted the doors; adding a little paint in various spots using 5 different browns.
The frames are painted a dark brown.
Once the lids were fully dried, I added a wash of brown over everything to hide the primer.
To wrap them up, I painted “hinges” on both the lids and frames black. I want them to be noticeable, but not to stand out.
Overall they look ok, but not as good as the doors do.
I cut and stain the 4 remaining wales and bend them at the bow. While bending them my electronic bending iron broke. The metal shaft has always be wobbly but today it just broke off. Given I had only bent one of the four wales I was at as bit of a standstill. Sure I could buy a soldering iron down here in Mexico but I already have 2 of them at home so I don’t have to buy one if I don’t have to.
And then I remembered seeing at least one person using an actual clothes iron to bend boards so I gave it a try. And it worked. It didn’t give me as much control but it actually was faster.
They all needed a little touch up with the stain. Not sure why I stained them before bending, but I did.
While waiting for the touch up stain to dry I started working on the small wales at the very bow of the ship. There are actually 3 on each side that use 2mm x 2mm boards. A little measuring, sanding, and staining and they go on fairly smoothly.
The lower wales turned out to be challenging for me for at least two reasons…
- I don’t have a plank bender so they kinda are what they are.
- The railing KEEPS getting in the way / so I just removed it.
It’s all about the curve at the bow. I can’t get the wale to stay tight against the hull. I can get one portion but then I realize it’s pulled away in another area. I decide to just work on parts of the bow and once it is dry, I’ll work on the rest.
To help hold the very front tip of the wale in place, I attached a small board to the top of the bow stem, leaving a gap the thickness of the wale. This plus a few pins and a couple of rubber bands gets the front inch or two to hold tight.
Once dried, the rest is easy to glue in place. To keep a consistent distance between the two wales I use a 8mm board as a spacer.
It probably took about 4 hours of actual work-time to get the 2 wales on the starboard side done.
For the port side, I’m going to use my freshly learned technique and attach a small board to the bow stem to keep the front tip-off the wale snuggly against the hull. I then puta number of pins into each wale, and the put glue on the front two inches. I put them into place (which is a lot easier since I removed the railings), and push the first few pins into the hull and then put a couple of rubber bands over the front curve.
The remaining portions of the wales go very smoothly.
I add in the beam for the emergency rudder chains but due to my modification of adding chase guns, the beam has to sit higher and be made with three pieces of board. One on each side and then a third between the 2 balcony supports. Since the beam can’t sit at the same height as the bottom wale, I add a small section of stained board right above the wale from the rear of the balcony to the stern.
I wrap up the wales by attaching the 4 vertical wales between the gun ports on each side.
It takes about an hour or so to clean up everything up; cutting, trimming, sanding, and staining on all the various wales.
Next up is staining portions of the top of the hull and somehow I manage to stain a little bit too much. So even though I like to say just about anything can be fixed because “it’s only wood and glue”, I found something that can’t be. Decorations go in this area at a later stage so it will end up being a minor thing.
My time this season in Vallarta is coming to an end, and I kept holding off on posting this in the hope I’d get more completed. I still may, but thought I’d post this now. I hate putting the Molino away until I’m back in October, but that just means that I get to start working on my Bluenose again.
So when I return, it’s time for the hull decorations, the windows, the door, and varnishing the hull.
Time for this portion: 18.5 hours
Total time to date: 163.5 hours