Enterprise Maryland 1799 1:51 [COMPLETED BUILD]

Hello, mistakes are unavoidable, unfortunately. Fortunately, they teach us to think 'out of the box' and make us experienced. like today, you made your own stem, I mean you made it from scratch, and made it well! Don't you proud of yourself?! Thumbsup For others, it doesn't have to break to make new part. They make a new one because they don't like the one supplied with kit. You made yet another step in to a different world of modeling - a scratch build! Congrats!
 
In preparing for the second planking I came to the realization that I do not have enough planks :eek:.

So I'm in the process of how best to complete this 2nd planking.
I do have some extra 2X4X600 sepelli wood(maybe 4) that I could mill down to .5X4X600.
As well, the plans call for 2 lower wales on each side. I could forgo the 2nd planking under those sections.
Either way, the count is tight and I don't have much wiggle room.
I measured 20 planks for each side and i only have 37.
Of those, about a dozen have a significant side bend.

Challenges, ya gotta love 'em :D
 
Back at it again. Ship-1

Working on the top rails for the model.
The plans call for laminating 3 2X2X600 pieces of wood together and gluing on top of the hull planking previously built.
Since I'm using my own wood for this part, I needed to mill the pieces.
Here's the result.... not perfect 2X2X600 but nothing sanding can't resolve.
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Next, on to mounting to the hull....
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Not to hard, the key is to soak the 2X2X600 pieces then combine them (3 pieces each) and put in a jig to bend to the appropriate curve.
Notice that I added supports on the Stem to hopefully keep me from breaking it again. So far it has worked.

That's all I have on the top rails.
 
Resolving the 2nd planking shortage issue.
In case anyone hasn't noticed from the original box image above, the hull planking is 2 tone :D.

I went to the local Home Depot and picked up a piece of poplar wood.
I was looking for something about 6mm thick, at least 600mm in length and 5 or 6 inches wide.
Having the width under 6 inches allows me to fit the wood in my mini planer.

The piece I ended up with was twice as long as needed so I cut in half.
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Thickness was right in range.
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I ripped 8 pieces of approximately .5mm X 6mm X 600mm
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Next I tested the look on the ship.
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What does everyone think? Thumbsup or Thumbsdown

At first glance I'm happy with it. :D
I'll see how it works out once I start gluing the pieces on the hull.

Next on the list is making the lower wales.
 
Rowboat said:
What does everyone think? Thumbsup or Thumbsdown
Click to expand...
Definitely Thumbsup (or two thumbs UP)! Personally, I love make a distinguishing colors between the above and below gunwales. While it is not the rule, we can see this on many contemporary models. At the end , it is the only your decision.
 
One other thing I completed, cutting the hole for the spirit mast in to the front of the hull.
Didn't drill with an electric drill.
I used round files and sandpaper.

In the beginning, the front part of the main keel that rises up was a confusion point for me.
That is to say, does that piece stay in tack or eventually get sanded down.
A few times when building up the hull, above deck, I thought about removing it.
Here's a picture of the piece I'm discussing.
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The plans never actually call out that this piece is for holding up the spirit mast and being a novice I just wasn't sure.
Now it appears to me that the spirit mast rests on this piece and it helps set the angle of the mast.
Maybe I'm wrong but that's how I used it.
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Enough posting for the day ...... :)
 
Working on the above "lower wales" section of the model.
Milled a few pieces of popular.
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Attached the pieces
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The manual called for a smaller piece where the wales meet the last 2nd planking. I think it was 1mm X 1mm.
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A clearer picture of that last piece.
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I think it looks pretty good. I might mill some thinner pieces (.3mm) to put on as a 3rd layer.
Just depends how much gets sanded off later when I smooth and level that section.
Popular is not as dense a material as the sepelli wood that was originally supposed to be in that section.


Next I start the 2nd planking below the lower wales.
 
So, I'll start with some excuse as to why I did what I did.
Hmm, that's never a good way to start a post :D

I laid the lower wales in a fairly level line, that is, not curving the bow area up.
When I laid my 2nd layer planking I measured down about 6 planks and let it lie as it was.
You can see my measurement if the image is enlarged.
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This resulted in the plank butting up against the lower wale where it meets at the bow.
No bending , just let it lie naturally.
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A view of the stern area.
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Some modelers may be gasping (or laughing) at how I laid this as there is no way 5 more pieces of planking is going to fit in the bow area. :(.
I guess I should have mapped this all out from the beginning and I thought I did.
Here's how it looks after a few planks (which took at least a week of work).
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A closer look at the bow. It's a little blurry but one can see that some planks run into the lower wale.
Not sure if this is the correct way a ship is built ( my guess is NO) but this at least resolved my issue.

Probably won't be getting a job at any ship building factory any time soon Redface.

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Let the whippings begin ........
 
Finished the port side planking (well almost).
Here's the pics.
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Anyone have thoughts on how it turned out?
Should the lower wales have been done differently.
Looking at the images from the blueprints I thought I put the wales in the correct place.
Seems, to me, it looks odd that the lower wales and above looks straight but everything below curves up at the bow.
The stern looks okay to me.
 

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Working on the cannon port holes.
Squaring them is a challenge.

Drilled the holes , cut them out (all 14).
Sanded and scraped to even out.
Started putting in the inside trim for the port holes and that's where the out of square becomes noticeable.

Trying to figure out what tool works best to square the sides and corners.
Wrapped some sand paper around a flat file, maybe 7mm wide, but this still didn't give me the "squareness" I'm seeing in others' builds.

I tried just a flat metal file, still no success. I think the file is made for metal and not wood.

I don't want to continue working on the cannon port holes as the more I work on them the bigger they get :rolleyes:.

I'll try to post some pictures later when I have time.

Everyone have a good day and stay safe.
 
Please post some photos so we can get an idea for possible help. I have a great hint from our member @NMBROOK Nigel to use long scalpel blade for such work.
 
My method being a complete beginner working on my Enterprise was fairly simple. Once I figured out where to gun ports were located, was to outline them, drill holes along the outline, rough out the ports and finally use my DIY tool to square them.

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I think the holes measured out to be 10 X 10mm, if I remember right. So I purchased several 10 X 10mm square wooden dowels and used the Elmers glue to paste four different grits of sandpaper to them. Working carefully after the roughing out I was able finish and square all gun ports in couple of hours.

Jan
 
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