Emma C. Berry 1:32 PoF by Model Shipways

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Jul 12, 2021
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I recently started a new build, and saw that there was not yet a log for this kit here (although a number of forum members seem to have built it), so decided to chronicle my progress. Afraid that I had already started a few things before I decided to record the process, so the first few photos are “re-enactments”.

The kit is Model Shipways’ Emma C. Berry in 3/8” scale (1:32), which recreates in miniature a sloop-rigged well smack built in 1866 in Noank, Connecticut. The vessel survived over a century of use as a fishing boat, coaster and yacht, going through numerous changes of rig, accommodation and configuration before being donated to Mystic Seaport Museum. There it was restored twice, and is now on display as part of the floating collection. The vessel is a favorite with the museum’s visitors, and Mystic Seaport assisted in the development of the kit, which shows the vessel as it was after its second restoration in 1992.

Construction is plank on frame with a high level of detail. The kit contains sheets of laser-cut parts in three thicknesses, a comprehensive wood package (strip, square, and round), a small set of britannia metal cast fittings, brass pins, eyebolts, rings and belaying pins, brass strip and wire, copper chain, wood blocks and deadeyes, six cards of rigging cord in two colors, and decals for the stern and scrollboard decorations. All of the wood parts are solid, even-grained basswood (no plywood or mdf). Four sheets of plans (by Ben Lankford) include drawings of all of the laser-cut parts, a hull construction drawing, a deck arrangement drawing, and a rigging plan, but no conventional lines drawing (one can be extrapolated from the frame shapes and other drawings). A 38-page instruction book contains more sketches and photos. It includes a brief introduction to the process of modelling (it assumes no prior knowledge), some of the traditional tutorial material (how to scribe a waterline, etc.), before taking the builder through the construction process in sufficient detail to get a decent result.

The drawings and material allow the construction of an interior, which is conjectural, and the structure of the model follows the construction of the actual vessel, more or less, although some stacked assemblies, such as the stern deadwood, are provided as single pieces which can be scribed to represent the individual timbers. The transom is also provided as a solid plank, rather than framed and planked as in the original. The plans and instructions have lots of details showing how the vessel is actually built, as well as possible simplifications for the modeller, so one can build as accurate a replica as one wants or as much as eyesight will allow.

My assessment is that quality is reasonable, what I remember from Model Shipways kits in my youth (my dad thoroughly enjoyed their big Benjamin W. Latham, my brother built the pilot schooner Phantom, and I did the old solid-hull Rattlesnake). Materials are good and comprehensive, laser cutting is clean, and the drawings provide loads of extra detail if one wants to exploit the possibilities of the large scale. Ben Lankford’s plans are like old friends in their style and hand-drawn quirkiness. The absence of a lines plan is not as big an omission as it sounds, since the model is built on pre-cut frames. The build will show how well everything fits. Posts on the internet suggest that the kit can be challenging, in part because its basic structure is so flimsy until planking is complete. I am not especially worried about the quality of the fittings, blocks, etc., as I will probably scratch build most of this detail anyway, but will try out the items the kit provides.Berry 1-1 comp.jpgBerry 1-2 comp.jpg

Afraid I had already cut a few laser cut parts out of the sheet before taking the pictures.

Fred
 
This is the first wooden kit I have built since I was in high school in the 1970s (Rattlesnake), although I have lots of scratch-building experience since 1984 as a research model builder for my regular job (maritime archaeology) and I was trained as a boatbuilder. I bought the kit because of the subject – in 1982-1983 I worked in the shipyard at Mystic Seaport and looked after the Berry, including hauling and painting the vessel each summer. I took lots of measurements of the boat as she was then, looking quite tired, in planning a scratch model at 1:24, which never got farther than the backbone. I probably can’t track down my notes from 1982, unfortunately, although the appearance of the vessel changed quite a bit in the restoration ten years later, when the original deck configuration was restored.

There is little if any original timber left in the Berry as she emerged from the 1992 restoration. The first restoration, in 1969-71, followed the then current Mystic philosophy of rot-chasing, replacing bad wood and leaving good timber, while trying to recreate the original rig and appearance. It left some later accretions, such as a forward deckhouse and a wheel, and scarfed in a lot of patches. There was by then already little left of the original construction. In the 1990s, the shipyard effectively took the boat to pieces and rebuilt it as a largely new vessel, a representative example of a Noank well smack rather than an exact recreation of this specific vessel’s original apperance. Although little of the timber remains, the hull’s graceful shape had survived through all of its alterations and rebuilds, and this is probably the essence of the boat’s identity today.

I was always fond of the Berry, one of my favorites among the boats I had to look after. It is a clean, powerful hull design with a big sloop rig and simple deck structure. The wet well, with its hundreds of holes drilled through the bottom planking, is an interesting feature. I have a hankering to make the model look more like the boat looked when she was my responsibility, dark green instead of black, with a wheel instead of a tiller, although I might draw the line at the silver deck - to keep the water out, we were painting the deck with aluminium roof paint as a temporary measure.

My friend Willits Ansel wrote a book about the first restoration (The Restoration of the Emma C. Berry), which includes a lines plan, deck arrangement and rig plan as restored, and many fine hand sketches of the restoration process. It is of little use for someone building the kit, but it includes lots of history of the vessel and details of the fisheries in which the Berry worked for its first sixty years. It is a good read if you can find a copy.

Fred
 
This is the first wooden kit I have built since I was in high school in the 1970s (Rattlesnake), although I have lots of scratch-building experience since 1984 as a research model builder for my regular job (maritime archaeology) and I was trained as a boatbuilder. I bought the kit because of the subject – in 1982-1983 I worked in the shipyard at Mystic Seaport and looked after the Berry, including hauling and painting the vessel each summer. I took lots of measurements of the boat as she was then, looking quite tired, in planning a scratch model at 1:24, which never got farther than the backbone. I probably can’t track down my notes from 1982, unfortunately, although the appearance of the vessel changed quite a bit in the restoration ten years later, when the original deck configuration was restored.

There is little if any original timber left in the Berry as she emerged from the 1992 restoration. The first restoration, in 1969-71, followed the then current Mystic philosophy of rot-chasing, replacing bad wood and leaving good timber, while trying to recreate the original rig and appearance. It left some later accretions, such as a forward deckhouse and a wheel, and scarfed in a lot of patches. There was by then already little left of the original construction. In the 1990s, the shipyard effectively took the boat to pieces and rebuilt it as a largely new vessel, a representative example of a Noank well smack rather than an exact recreation of this specific vessel’s original apperance. Although little of the timber remains, the hull’s graceful shape had survived through all of its alterations and rebuilds, and this is probably the essence of the boat’s identity today.

I was always fond of the Berry, one of my favorites among the boats I had to look after. It is a clean, powerful hull design with a big sloop rig and simple deck structure. The wet well, with its hundreds of holes drilled through the bottom planking, is an interesting feature. I have a hankering to make the model look more like the boat looked when she was my responsibility, dark green instead of black, with a wheel instead of a tiller, although I might draw the line at the silver deck - to keep the water out, we were painting the deck with aluminium roof paint as a temporary measure.

My friend Willits Ansel wrote a book about the first restoration (The Restoration of the Emma C. Berry), which includes a lines plan, deck arrangement and rig plan as restored, and many fine hand sketches of the restoration process. It is of little use for someone building the kit, but it includes lots of history of the vessel and details of the fisheries in which the Berry worked for its first sixty years. It is a good read if you can find a copy.

Fred
Can you provide the full title, author and number code for looking up the book from Ansel.

I have this kit in my collection from many years ago, before I stopped building after loosing contact with local club. Hope to watch your build to help mine out when I am ready to begin.

Kurt
 
INTRIED THIS ONE A WHILE AGO IT WAS A MESS GONE. THE BIG PROBLEM FOR ME EVEN A LOT OF YEARS AGO WAS LACK OF JIG KNOW WAY CAN I DO A POF WITHOUT A JIG JUST DOES NOT WORK FOR ME. GOD BLESS STAY SAFE ALL DON
 
The book is The Restoration of the Smack Emma C. Berry at Mystic Seaport 1969-1971, by Willits D. Ansel, originally published by the Marine Historical Association, Mystic, CT in 1973. ISBN 0-913372-08-0.

It was reissued around 1990, I think, but has been out of print since 1995.

Fred
 
INTRIED THIS ONE A WHILE AGO IT WAS A MESS GONE. THE BIG PROBLEM FOR ME EVEN A LOT OF YEARS AGO WAS LACK OF JIG KNOW WAY CAN I DO A POF WITHOUT A JIG JUST DOES NOT WORK FOR ME. GOD BLESS STAY SAFE ALL DON
Hi Don,
This is my main concern in the build, since the attachment of the frames to the central part of the keel is very flimsy, hard to get a stiff enough structure to fair it and bend planks. But we'll see what I can do.
Fred
 
My first task with any build is infrastructure to make the build as easy as possible. I had to get the kit onto an airplane to get it home, and the box was a casualty, so I made a new, wooden box, with the building board mounted to the top. This keeps everything together, and provides good protection in my shop, which sees lots of other projects. The plans were mounted to a piece of mdf with a hanging bar, so they can either stay on the wall or be moved to the bench for layout work.

The kit is designed to be built rightside-up, and the laser-cut parts include both a strongback to hold the backbone assembly at the right angle and an alignment frame to help in getting the frames set up square and vertical. Although the kit instructions have you assemble the backbone timbers first, I built the strongback and alignment jig first, to get a feel for the laser-cut parts. Everything fitted fine with minimal cleanup, really just paring off the nubs left from where the parts attached to the sheet. I added plywood reinforcements at the corners of the alignment jig to make it a little stiffer, and vertical stiffeners on the sides of the strongback at the bow, since the basswood is not very stiff across the grain.
Berry 3-1 comp.jpgBerry 3-2 comp.jpgBerry 3-3 comp.jpgBerry 3-4 comp.jpg
 
Hallo Fred,
I am very happy, that you started your building log of this interesting model
I will not ask, if there is a chair free - I have my own folding chair with me, so I am able to put it close to your working table to have the best view
I am looking forward .....
 
My first task with any build is infrastructure to make the build as easy as possible. I had to get the kit onto an airplane to get it home, and the box was a casualty, so I made a new, wooden box, with the building board mounted to the top. This keeps everything together, and provides good protection in my shop, which sees lots of other projects. The plans were mounted to a piece of mdf with a hanging bar, so they can either stay on the wall or be moved to the bench for layout work.

The kit is designed to be built rightside-up, and the laser-cut parts include both a strongback to hold the backbone assembly at the right angle and an alignment frame to help in getting the frames set up square and vertical. Although the kit instructions have you assemble the backbone timbers first, I built the strongback and alignment jig first, to get a feel for the laser-cut parts. Everything fitted fine with minimal cleanup, really just paring off the nubs left from where the parts attached to the sheet. I added plywood reinforcements at the corners of the alignment jig to make it a little stiffer, and vertical stiffeners on the sides of the strongback at the bow, since the basswood is not very stiff across the grain.
View attachment 323934View attachment 323935View attachment 323936View attachment 323937
What!?! No dovetails on the replacement box? Seems early to make concessions, Fred ROTF.
 
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