H.M.S. Fly by Amati 1:65 - Build log by Jcob

The American Holly lumber strips has arrived from hobbymill.eu and I'm happy with how they turned out. They also included some samples of their other wood types, thanks! Got 5 mm wide strips for the normal planks and 8 mm for the top and butt outboard planks.
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Even though the fore and aft planks of the top deck won't be visible when the build is finished, it was an opportunity to practice hooked planking for the quarterdeck and forecastle. Used the three butt shift pattern with the original plans' support beams as reference:
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Also got my hands on the four books on building a Swan-class sloop by David Antscherl with a supplement on sail making. Found in an Oslo antique shop:
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They've been very helpful with the upper deck, I got the inspiration for the top and butt pattern of the most outboard planks from the second book. Apparently these were placed for strength and were replaceable due to the higher wear and tear coming from the gun carriage trucks moving over them.
In hindsight, there are some things I would've done different, such as having a broader king's plank in the center. Also the margin plank is missing its joints as it was interrupted by the support beams - I will add a joint in the middle when those uncoloured beams have been removed.
Overall, pretty happy with the outcome :).
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Next steps will be working on the hatch coamings and other details on the top deck.
/Jacob
 
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Used toothpicks from the grocery for the deck wood nails. Found the method on this forum and it worked out pretty well.

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I'm happy with the result. Quite the time consuming task with each toothpick point having to be sanded down individually to fit.
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The kit provided walnut strips meant for the hatches I thought were a bit too dark against the light holly deck, so I used some of the light Swiss pear sample I got from Hobbymill.
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Made the riding bitt to the FFM instructions, with a replaceable backing piece. Was a challenge to figure out the colours on this one, I can't imagine the "working" part of the riding bitt was painted red as it would've been worn down from all the wear. So I went with a natural walnut on that one and painted the bitt pins and standards red.
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This thin wooden sheet was a big challenge to fit properly. Used cannons to try to level it correctly and pins, clamps and all the tools available to keep it to shape whilst the glue dried. We'll find out later what I missed.
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Been a busy time with work and it doesn't look like it will let up for the rest of the year. Gonna be slow progress from here. See ya!

/Jacob
 
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Finished the first layer of planking. Bit of a challenge getting the planks close to each other with minimal gaps:
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As you can see, some mistakes were made cutting the planks short, hopefully it wont cause too much trouble later on:
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Placing the walnut strips for the upper and lower stern counters according to the instructions left a height gap between them. Solved it by placing strips on top of each other to level them out, then sanding down to get the right angle.
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Forgot to take pictures while working on the wale, I went with placing two layers of walnut strips on top of each other in three rows. Sanded and painted them black and decided afterwards to place wood nails and cut out lines to show where the planks join.
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Unfortunately all that is still visible under the new coat of paint are the cut lines, I spent all that time with wood nails in vain... o_O
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Next will be planking with walnut strips below the wale. Will spend a bit more time on tapering the first layer of limewood and then perhaps marking out plank width on the deck to make it easier to track when placing the second layer. I don't know if it is necessary but I've seen a lot of people doing this measurement on their builds to help them with planking, so why not try it?

/Jacob
 
Been some slow progress during this hectic autumn with work taking over a lot of the free time I would otherwise put into my hobbies. But now the budget is practically finished and presented and life will hopefully come back to some balance. Been working on the final planking below the wale:
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These cable clips with spikes are pretty useful to avoid spikes splitting the wood bits.

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Next step will be planking the outer bulwark and start on the cannons. Will also be putting wooden spikes above the waterline and leave the part below for the upcoming white paint.

That's it for this time, seeya later!
 
Fish&Chip said:
Welldone and I likes your cable spike tip. I have somes so I retained your idea for my current Fly build.
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Happy to help, do you have a build log of your Fly? Always interesting to see different ways people make their builds.
 
Magic Mike said:
Jacob, nice work! Where did you buy the cable clips? Magic Mike
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Mike, you can buy those cable clips in the hardware stores like Home Depot or Lowers. Frankly look for coax cable management clips




 
Jimsky said:
Mike, you can buy those cable clips in the hardware stores like Home Depot or Lowers. Frankly look for coax cable management clips




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Jcob said:
Been some slow progress during this hectic autumn with work taking over a lot of the free time I would otherwise put into my hobbies. But now the budget is practically finished and presented and life will hopefully come back to some balance. Been working on the final planking below the wale:
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These cable clips with spikes are pretty useful to avoid spikes splitting the wood bits.

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Next step will be planking the outer bulwark and start on the cannons. Will also be putting wooden spikes above the waterline and leave the part below for the upcoming white paint.

That's it for this time, seeya later!
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Good morning. Brilliant. Cheers Grant
 
Thank you Grant, been looking at your Xebec log, it looks great.
 
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