Gunboat Philadelphia 1776 Model Shipways MS2263 1:24 Scale

[Dematosdg]

OK, so the improper looking floorboards have been nagging me for two weeks, and not I think I will spend the time to remove them and rework the floor boards (turn them over and use underside) to correct the nails and location of frames underneath, especially in aft cockpit where the plans are wrong on size of the bailing well located there. And hopefully get mine more like the way Olha shows in her online build. I still don't like the bright yellow shellac color, but I will make some adjustments to what I did, based on her last online posting where she showed how just stain makes boards look dirty, vs using thin CA as wood sealer first then adding stains to adjust shade of wood.

You only need to take the 2 half pieces, add a short beam in the middle, just the section that can be seen, and reglue the floor planks as Olha did. That will be very simple.

Concerning the nails position, I can't see them on your picture, or they are too small or they are out of focus. Nevertheless, if that bothers you too much, then you will have to take off all the planks. Something that I will probably don't do. But that's me

 

[Kurt Konrath]

You only need to take the 2 half pieces, add a short beam in the middle, just the section that can be seen, and reglue the floor planks as Olha did. That will be very simple.

Concerning the nails position, I can't see them on your picture, or they are too small or they are out of focus. Nevertheless, if that bothers you too much, then you will have to take off all the planks. Something that I will probably don't do. But that's me

That was my starting plan for rework, depending on how it goes, I only used a scribe to mark nail holes so they can barely be seen, maybe I need to drill them out as Olha and many others do. At this scale they should be clearly visible.

 

[Ted Robinson]

So after some time I started getting ready to attach the bulkheads. Except for #1 & 16, the others are in two piece sets. So I used a few of them to temp place in the keel and using a small square, I marked lines on the bottom to keep the bulkheads square and straight across the width of the hull. Then started the slow process of gluing, cleaning up excess glue, and clamping with my Lego blocks to keep things square. It is nice that Oklahoma City has a official Lego store in the mall, so I could go buy enough pieces just for ship building. The Admiral forbid robbing of the grandkids Lego stash.

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Then working every other bulkhead set I started gluing them all in, alternating location of my blocks, as some spots were tight on spacing. When done I carefully added #1 back after repairs and all will sit now overnight to glue up.

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Now to start the fun part which is fairing all the bulkheads from top to bottom, and that means the bottom must also be faired as the side planks go down to bottom, with no external keel to mate against. A true flat bottom boat. Hopefully, fingers crossed I won't break any bulkhead tops off, as Olha has two break just by bumping them lightly. But she showed how to fix this kind of problem, which makes for great teaching video series.

I have a week to get fairing done to catch up with where the work is at in her online group build.

Looking good. I love to follow Olha. Your build adds and extra dimension.

 

[Kurt Konrath]

As Olha did on her online build, she used kit wood and dyed it black with ink, I found a source who got me some nice scraps so I could cut down the wood and make my own accent wales for the boat.

Thanks to the supplier for the wood, and it gave me a chance to use my mini table top saw and my Model Machines thickness planer.

No to just get them installed correctly, so I don't have to remove and reinstall like Olha did!

 

[Kurt Konrath]

Ok back at the Gunboat after sitting idle for a while. I had some thinking to do about how I wanted to progress with the kit build. Do I try to alter design a bit to match the prototype or follow Olga or just go with kit plans the best I can?

After some thought I have decided to do a modified kit plan build. To use kit plans and materials when they are good enough, but to do a few upgrades to places here and there.

With this now decided along with a self promoted kick in the but for motivation I have started planking the hull.

So to start with I obtained some dark wood from Dave at the Lumberyard, and this gave me a reason to try my Model Machines thickness sander to get some nice 3/16” wood to replace the white kit supplied wood for the single row of wales.

I dug deep into hidden tool box used years ago when I started ship building and found my new, never used plank bending tool. I know it’s new because I dug around the tool box looking for tool rest to support the hot end, and after 10 minutes of moving and looking I gave up!

But when I took the twist wire off the power cord the support stand was in the power cord bundle wrapped in with the twist tie!

So kind of following Olga as she showed adding wales I cut and sanded one end and test fit till I liked it and then dipped the wood a while and started working with bending to fit.

I cut the first piece a bit long to allow final trimming when shaped.

To keep things level, like Ohla, her idea worked great, I made a little jig to measure down from top of bulkheads to align the wale. Then I started clamping and adjusting to shape and fit.

After aft section was done I did the same steps over on forward piece to get it attached.

Now waiting on it to dry to shape for final trim and gluing up on next work day.

I have told myself I need to work on my ship kits two days a week or sell them if I can’t stay motivated!

Here are some photos from today!