Rebuilding Bluenose I, BB576. [COMPLETED BUILD]

[RDN1954]

Hello fellow modelers, this is my first (partial) built in like close to fourty years. So I consider myself to be a real rookie in this field, especially when looking on this website to the build logs of some of the highly experienced and gifted builders.

Some five years back I came into the possession of a model of the Bluenose schooner, made from a Billing Boats kit, #BB576, scale 1:65. There is another BB kit out there, BB600, but that's a model of the Bluenose II in scale 1:100 and differs from the Bluenose I in many details.
After all these years the BB576 kit is still available, although I had to experience to my disadvantage that the design of the kit evolved slightly over the years. More on that later.

About a half year ago I found the motivation (and thus the time...) to sit down and start working on rebuilding the model.
First of all I had to establish what I wanted to do; restoring it exactly it was how my late father build it, or stick exactly to the BB building instructions, or something in between.
I decided to go for something in between, which at that point in time meant using the hardware I had (completed hull, completed masts, booms and gaffes and (as it later emerged) an incomplete set of sails. I also wanted to paint the ship in accordance with the BB instructions. A final requirement I imposed, was to get rid of the plastic(!) blocks and deadeyes and replace them with wooden examples.
This was my starting point and boy, did I come across a myriad of issues.

I already shared two pictures on SOS, but I decided to share those pictures again in this thread:

First picture is the model after I removed all the sails and standing and running rigging.
Note that my father decided for a look "au naturel", except for the hull below the waterline, which he painted green.



And here the result of six months worth of work.
For the real connoisseurs among us, it's easy to spot that the model is not historically correct. I'll address some of these topics later on.
Still missing is the fisherman's stay sail; this is work in progress. This was the sail not present with the model when I got it. I haven't been able to establish whether this sail wasn't part of the original kit, or that it has gotten lost in time... The family members I consulted weren't of any help either in this respect.



I plan to go through the rebuild stages I went through, although admittedly, I didn't take enough pictures, but that's after the fact or water under the bridge.
In the next post I will first address some of the differences between my build and the BB building instructions/main plan.

 

[Uwek]

I plan to go through the rebuild stages I went through, although admittedly, I didn't take enough pictures, but that's after the fact or water under the bridge.
In the next post I will first address some of the differences between my build and the BB building instructions/main plan.

Sounds very interesting - I will follow with big interest

 

[RDN1954]

First action was to check the (online) availability of building instructions and main plans of this particular kit, since the original instructions and plans were no longer available.

This action was taken before disassembly of the model; I wanted to make sure I would be able te reassemble the model. After I found the needed instructions, and plans, I decided to disassemble the model (without making any pictures; major error 1).

The second step was to take stock of which fittings and other materials I needed.

Since I decided to paint the model in accordance with the Billing Boats instructions, I ordered the required paints, but without verifying available historical resources (major error 2, an error I admittedly repeated several times, under the assumption(!) that the building instructions were correct). The major consequence of this error was that the color of the hull below the waterline is incorrect. I applied a bronze colored paint and after I discovered this was not the correct color, I was already pretty far along in the rebuild and decided against repainting, mainly based on the fact that this was matching the color as specified by Billing Boats. Also the waterline itself is not the correct color, I used a duck-egg green paint, whereas most sources indicate a white waterline.

My old man colored the deck with a dark, brown-red finish. I decided to forego any changing of that color for two reasons. One, I wanted to maintain to some extent the work my father did on the model and two, I didn't have the foggiest about the can of worms I would be opening if I started to remove all items attached to the decks.

The bulwarks were painted white, but showed discoloration after some many years on a shelf, first in the living room and later in my dad's "office".
Initially, I wanted to apply a fresh coat of paint, but after taping off the decks, main cabin, wheel house and other items, see picture below, and after trying to tape off the deck around the bulwarks I had to admit defeat and left the bulwarks for what they were.



All masts, gaffs and booms were finished with some unknown lacquer. I decided to just apply the white coat and the parts as indicated by the BB plans.

I also ordered blocks and dead eyes, number and size per bill of material. After receipt of these parts I realized that the size of the holes in the blocks and deadeyes was too small to accommodate the rope diameters, as specified by BB. Checking some of the old, plastic blocks, I found the size of blocks and deadeyes needed to be 2mm/0,0787" larger. Please note that BB used some artistic freedom; the real life namesake had different sizes of blocks and dead eyes, also the rope diameters for the model have been somewhat simplified.
At the end of the day I ordered the larger blocks and deadeyes.

On to the ropes; initially I ordered the BB ropes, again per their bill of materials, with the idea to color the ropes where needed.
First I used the method of submerging the rope in a rather strong coffee solution. This was not particularly successful; the color was not evenly distributed and not as dark as required. The original standing rigging of the Bluenose was black, or close to black.
In order to get the right color, I tried a fabric dip dy, black. This didn’t work either; the ropes did indeed become a lot darker, but with a bluish hue, so no good.

Another issue I ran into with the BB supplied rope is that it is fluffy, rather much so. I started using this rope, but after a while I decided it was not good enough for me. No amount of waxing the ropes improved the results. So I ordered Mantua rope in various colors and diameters. This is what I used throughout the project, although the ropes, at least in the diameters I used, were rather "stiff"; not as supple as the BB ropes.

I did not enter the path of making my own ropes on a rope walk, I can see the authenticity and beauty there, but for me this was at least one step too far.

 

[RDN1954]

Some thoughts on the Bluenose model kit, as offered by Billing Boats.

It appears to me that it is near impossible to recreate an accurate kit against an affordable price tag. My theory is that accuracy and cost relate exponentially to one another, or in other words, just a little more detail and accuracy against a significantly higher price tag. This can either be in the way the kit manufacturer details and equips the kit, or the time and effort, see the numerous builders here on SOS, people are willing to spend to get their model to museum quality standards.

When looking at the BB kit from 40 years ago, it is clear to see a different standard was used, for example the grid in front of the wheel house was imprinted on the aft deck part:



Also the hatches were formed by simple, flat pieces of wood with a print, representing the hatch structure:



The current kit shows far more accurate details, but still leaving a lot of room for improvement or added details for the more advanced modeller.

As I mentioned, there were differences in the configurations of both kits. The one causing me the most headaches being the layout of the standing rigging of the masts.

The older model had 4 shrouds on either side of the masts, whereas the most recent kits shows 5 and 6 shrouds on front- and main masts respectively.
Since I didn't want to rework the hull (for example to update the shroud attachments) I decided to stay with the "four shroud" layout.

Old kit configuration of front mast shrouds.	Contemporary kit configuration of front mast shrouds.
	​

Also the running rigging gave me some severe headaches. When I dismantled the ship, I left all eyes and feed throughs as they were, assuming they would be used again, not. The later kit shows more running rigging and thus has more belaying pins and attachment bolts. The location of the running rigging, belayed to the ship were for some 40% relocated. In the end it means that my model resembles to some extent the Bluenose schooner, from a distance, that is...

Another configuration issue was/is the presence/absence of the fisherman's stay sail.
The current BB Bluenose I kit shows this stay sail. My model came without one. When you look at the BB Bluenose II kit, you will not find this stay sail.
First I thought I misplaced this sail. After a thorough SAR effort I had to conclude I didn't.
Then I checked with some family members. They didn't have any recollection of this sail being attached.
After modeling a (paper) mock-up, I decided the fisherman's stay sail has to go on. Luckily I already prepared all the running rigging for this sail, so it should be a rather simple task to attach this sail.



One of the features I like most about the BB kit is, that, in my humble opinion, the hull lines look really close to the real deal. I know there is a lot of discussion on the shape of the “knee” in the bow, but when looking at old pictures of the Bluenose I, I think BB hit it close enough, especially when comparing to some other kits out there, where I think the knee is overdone. Not so with this kit.

 

[Peter Voogt]

Hi Johan.
Nice you started this build-log. I will follow it with great interest.
I will ad it to the BN-list.
Regards, Peter

 

[RDN1954]

First of all I had to establish what I wanted to do; restoring it exactly it was how my late father build it, or stick exactly to the BB building instructions, or something in between.
I decided to go for something in between, which at that point in time meant using the hardware I had (completed hull, completed masts, booms and gaffes and (as it later emerged) an incomplete set of sails.

I think it's necessary for me to explain why I went for the "in between" approach.
As I wrote in my first post, the model was build by my father and came into my possession some time after his passing. The reason I went for "in between" was two-fold: firstly, I was not really comfortable with the way the model was built, especially not with the paint scheme, or lack thereof (btw, the hull was expertly and accurately built), secondly, I wanted this model to be a tribute to my father by restoring it to a presentable condition. This approach led to numerous compromises to be made, not resulting in a very accurate build, but still, the result so far pleases me.

 

[RDN1954]

Painting the hull.

As stated before, I went with the colors as specified by BB. This means white inner bulwarks, white railings, black hull above the waterline, gold(!) below the waterline and the waterline a duck egg blue, which turned out more like a duck egg green…
According to a letter sent in 1970 from Smith & Rhuland in response to an inquiry from a modeler, the lower hull should be painted a “red copper”. The complete letter (and the colors used on the original Bluenose) can be found in the Bluenose Practicum Standard, pages 135 and 136.

So I went with the BB specified colors and the picture below shows the outcome of my paintjob below the waterline, after applying the first layer of paint.



As you can see, I already painted the handrails ánd the bowsprit. According to the same letter in the Bluenose Practicum Standard, the bowsprit was “oiled resembling varnish” (this also applies to, amongst others, the decks, btw).

When looking at BB’s main plan, the bowsprit should be painted white, hence the bowsprit of my model is painted white.

Initially I wanted to forego any painting of anything installed on the forward- and aft decks.
Once I completed painting the hull I reevaluated my earlier decision, the model really looked kind of boring, but also the balance was gone. The hull painted, the masts painted and none of the deck structure having any finish just didn't make sense anymore.
When looking at the picture below, showing the deck details of the wheel house and the main cabin, you’ll probably get my drift. So I started using tape…



The result is a more appealing looking of the various deck parts, although to this day I have second thoughts about the deck color. BB specifies “trainer yellow”, whereas the original should have its decks “oiled resembling varnish”. So essentially, the deck color on my model is at best too dark. What held me back, was, that in order to properly treat both decks, I had to remove all deck equipment, which was bonded to the decks. Since I had no idea what damage I could incur to the decks, I decided to leave the decks as they were…

 

[Jeff T]

Interesting and challenging work. Nicely done so far.

 

[RDN1954]

Interesting and challenging work. Nicely done so far.

Thanks!

 

[PT-2]

Thanks!

With the number of differences between your build and other kits and BN resources, I would think that you should follow your own eye and mind for what you want to present and pass accuracy and authenticity under the stern into the wake. There are a good number of references in the YQ BLuenose Group in the administrative area for that thread which runs very deep for consideration. But returning to the present tack. . . . follow your own mind and decisions to be happy in the end. Rich (PT-2)

 

[RDN1954]

With the number of differences between your build and other kits and BN resources, I would think that you should follow your own eye and mind for what you want to present and pass accuracy and authenticity under the stern into the wake. There are a good number of references in the YQ BLuenose Group in the administrative area for that thread which runs very deep for consideration. But returning to the present tack. . . . follow your own mind and decisions to be happy in the end. Rich (PT-2)

Thanks for your advice!
And, when looking at the results so far, and with all the compromises I made, I'm quite happy with it.
And rest assured, I have been/am actively looking for all kind of reference materials and, more informative, the various build logs on SOS.

 

[RDN1954]

Started customizing the deck, just to share. Adding coiled ropes.
Will get back to the rebuild story shortly...

 

[RDN1954]

The old photos of the Bluenose I, see https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/...hotos-books-and-resources-from-the-past.6543/, gave me some ideas on how I want to approach the coiling of the ropes for the running rigging.
I don't want go for the perfect coils, but instead for something more representing the operational, not so tidy, arrangement of the ropes. The pictures above show the first tries.

 

[PT-2]

Started customizing the deck, just to share. Adding coiled ropes.
Will get back to the rebuild story shortly...
View attachment 255480View attachment 255481View attachment 255482

The mix of hanks hung from belaying pins and loose flaked or coiled lines on the decks is a good mix and realistic to see. Rich (PT-2)

 

[RDN1954]

The mix of hanks hung from belaying pins and loose flaked or coiled lines on the decks is a good mix and realistic to see. Rich (PT-2)

Thanks. It's much a trail and error process and, as mentioned, the old pictures help out a lot. Johan

 

[RDN1954]

This is how a make my coils and hanks. It's similar to the method another modeler shared on his website.
The hanks needs to be quite narrow, otherwise I can't have them next to one another on the belaying pins. The coils are wrapped around the pins and then, by look and feel, made to look not too tidy.

Hanks: Trick is to not wrap too tightly (and a lot of patience). I use some cuts to hold the ends of the rope for ease of handling (an idea of a fellow modeler, which proved to be quite useful).



Coils: Nothing really special here. Initially I worked with four pins. Don't go there, just spend the time to add just a couple more pins...
I fix the coils with a drop of glue at two places, then,after, drying, remove it from the pins. Then I use my fingers to get a more cluttered look.



And this is how it worked out around the foremost, with hanks on the belaying pins and coiled ropes on deck. There may be room for improvement, but is sure beats just cutting the ropes and leave it at that (it's how it was done on this model, some 40 years back).

 

[RDN1954]

Sorry about the “customization interlude”, I couldn’t resist myself…

But back to the storyline.

After applying the paint I turned my attention to the sails. The model came with, what I thought, a complete set. The sails were from the original kit and quite thick, especially when compared to other sail material, like from Amati or Mantua.

First thing to do was wash them, to get rid of forty years worth of dirt and grime. It was a gamble, because I didn’t have a clou whether or not the old sails could withstand this treatment, but hey, they came out surprisingly clean and in a pretty good condition. Just some light ironing was required to get out the wrinkles. Wear and tear could be seen in basically all corners where the sails were attached to the running rigging and to the gaffs and booms. Normally one would opt either make a new set of sails, or for a no-sail display. As I was committed to not only rebuild the model, but also to pay tribute to my father, I opted to use the sails as is, with the exception of the reef lines in the main- and fore sails; I decided to add those. I think they’re (just a tad) too long, checking with old pictureS of the BN they definitely are, but visually it doesn’t look bad and I don’t know what will happen if I shorten them to a more authentic length, my guess is that they will be even more uncontrollable than they are now. So for now, I leave it at that.

The picture below shows ao the reef lines of main- and fore sail.



During the paint phase of the project I also applied white accents to the masts, gaffs, booms and masthoops, so once I finished applying the reef lines to the sails, I attached the main- and fore sails to their respective booms and gaffs. At that stage I also attached the masthoops to the sails.

While working on the sails, I tried to establish when to attach the sails to the masts first or wait until I was done with the standing rigging. After checking out a number of build logs, where I found builders advocating to mount the sails, prior to joining the masts to the hull and builders who would mount their sails after the masts were properly installed, I decided to for the pre-mast install option.
At that time I anticipated quite some accessibility issues with attaching the sails to the masthoops, with masts and shrouds in place. Turns out I still had accessibility- ánd visibility issues with setting up the running rigging.
Both gaff sails were also attached to their respective masts and the top shrouds were installed.

After that my attention was shifted to equipping both masts and gaffs with the appropriate blocks and eyes, all per BB instructions.

The picture below shows the fore mast, with the gaff sail installed and the top shrouds in place. Also a number of blocks are installed. Later I had to redo some of them, since I was not satisfied with the results once the running rigging was applied.



Once the pre-installation of the masts was completed, I moved up to joining the masts again with the hull.

It was than, that I realized the masts were originally mounted on top of the decks. The BB main plans indicate that both masts should be mounted through holes in the decks onto two intercostals between frames 6 and 7 and frames 9 and 10 (BB frame numbering). After some tweaking of the main mast gaff supports, they were interfacing with the fife rail, since those supports were sitting a lot closer to the deck than they originally were, I got the masts in and could start on the shrouds and stays.

 

[PT-2]

Sorry about the “customization interlude”, I couldn’t resist myself…

But back to the storyline.

After applying the paint I turned my attention to the sails. The model came with, what I thought, a complete set. The sails were from the original kit and quite thick, especially when compared to other sail material, like from Amati or Mantua.

First thing to do was wash them, to get rid of forty years worth of dirt and grime. It was a gamble, because I didn’t have a clou whether or not the old sails could withstand this treatment, but hey, they came out surprisingly clean and in a pretty good condition. Just some light ironing was required to get out the wrinkles. Wear and tear could be seen in basically all corners where the sails were attached to the running rigging and to the gaffs and booms. Normally one would opt either make a new set of sails, or for a no-sail display. As I was committed to not only rebuild the model” but als o pay tribute to my father, I opted to use the sails as is, with the exception of the reef lines in the main- and fore sails; I decided to add those. I think they’re (just a tad) too long, checking with old pictureS of the BN they definitely are, but visually it doesn’t look bad and I don’t know what will happen if I shorten them to a more authentic length, my guess is that they will be even more uncontrollable than they are now. So for now, I leave it at that.

The picture below shows ao the reef lines of main- and fore sail.

View attachment 255651

During the paint phase of the project I also applied white accents to the masts, gaffs, booms and masthoops, so once I finished applying the reef lines to the sails, I attached the main- and fore sails to their respective booms and gaffs. At that stage I also attached the masthoops to the sails.

While working on the sails, I tried to establish when to attach the sails to the masts first or wait until I was done with the standing rigging. After checking out a number of build logs, where I found builders advocating to mount the sails, prior to joining the masts to the hull and builders who would mount their sails after the masts were properly installed.
At that time I anticipated quite some accessibility issues with attaching the sails to the masthoops, with masts and shrouds in place. Turns out I still had accessibility- ánd visibility issues with setting up the running rigging.
Both gaff sails were also attached to their respective masts and the top shrouds were installed.

After that my attention was shifted to equipping both masts and gaffs with the appropriate blocks and eyes, all per BB instructions.

The picture below shows the fore mast, with the gaff sail installed and the top shrouds in place. Also a number of blocks are installed. Later I had to redo some of them, since I was not satisfied with the results once the running rigging was applied.

View attachment 255653

Once the pre-installation of the masts was completed, I moved up to joining the masts again with the hull.

It was than, that I realized the masts were originally mounted on top of the decks. The BB main plans indicate that both masts should be mounted through holes in the decks onto two longerons between frames 6 and 7 and frames 9 and 10 (BB frame numbering). After some tweaking of the main mast gaff supports, they were interfacing with the fife rail, since those supports were sitting a lot closer to the deck than they originally were, I got the masts in and could start on the shrouds and stays.

View attachment 255654

You are doing well and should have a very nice model when done. Rich (PT-2)

 

[RDN1954]

You are doing well and should have a very nice model when done. Rich (PT-2)

Thanks for your kind words, Rich.
Johan

 

[PT-2]

Thanks for your kind words, Rich.
Johan

We are all in SoS to support each other. Each one has most likely details that they know about, and others may not have noticed, which they may wish they had done differently or better. For myself I have leaned to accept what I can do which is less than I see in my mind's eye, and move forward . . .while also occasionally having to go back and remove to redo some prior work . . . . maybe even done long ago and now just noticed. You will do well with your build. Rich (PT-2)