Norfolk Wherry 'Gleaner'

[Seahawk]

Raymond,

 

You put us mere kit assemblers to shame.

[longshanks]

Excellent progress Ray, glad I was able to give you some ideas to get you going.

There are a lot of us waiting to see this develop

 

Kev

[06/24]

Inspiring stuff sir!

[06/24]

Inspiring stuff sir!

[06/24]

So good I was inspired twice!

[seadog]

Fascinated by the tape planning. Hadn't occurred to me, looks  good. One nice thing about a keel is it gives a vice something to grips. I have a  temporary one for mine for when the hull is finished and I'm faced with matting and rigging.

[Ray S]

Hello all!

 

Today's work has been a little different for me. First up, I had to revisit my old technical drawing skills (mostly forgotten) and try to get a plan of the open well inside this hull

 

 

I painstakingly measured out the plan, marked up the hull for reference points and drew the above plan. Then cut it out...

 

 

...then found it did not fit! I realised I had turned the boat round at some point and was measuring the back twice! Doh!

 

21 hours ago, 06/24 said:

So good I was inspired twice!

06/24, I must have misread wot you sed!

 

Back to the drawing board, and this time I held the paper over the opening and ran my fingers along the edge, creating a mark where the sides of the hold and cabin were. Then cut it out. Much better! I then transposed this onto some 40thou card and I just needed to do a little sanding down and the base plate now fitted inside the hull quite nicely. This will form the deck for the cargo hold and cuddy (cabin).

 

 

Next up, I got my trusty guillotine to cut out some 30thou card to form the sides of the hold/cabin, and secured it to the baseplate with quick setting Tamiya extra thin cement. This worked well, and soon I had a nice solid floor and sidewall combo. I then cut out a couple of bulkheads to mark off the fore end of the hold and the aft end of same (or the fore end of the cabin). I have put in a slight angle on the two bulkheads, ready for when I do the outside of the above-deck housing.

 

 

My intention is to put a bit of detail into the cabin, the plans show a stove, cupboard, a bunk with coal under (unless that meant bunker with coal under?) among other things. To help, the whole assembly is removable, and yes, it does go back in okay! All I need to remember is to keep the doors to the cabin open when I get that far, so I can see in afterwards. I will also add some strip to the hold and cabin walls to represent wood paneling.

 

 

That is it for now, thanks for looking,

 

Ray

Edited September 28, 2018 by Ray S
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[longshanks]

Flying along 

 

Kev

[Ray S]

Hello all!

 

Last night I settled down to do some of the cabin interior, whilst listening to the football until the point where I heard QPR went 1-0 up then switched the radio off!

 

On a more positive note, the modelling went quite well. I have added the six stanchions to the hold interior - I used 2mm x 1mm rod and angled the tops to match the bulkheads and glued them in with quick-drying liquid cement. I will plate the hold with planking later.

 

 

I had also added the rear section of the cabin, and cut out a doorway in the bulkhead. The doors opened outwards which would make it a bit tricky for the tillerman, so they were unshipped and stowed on the bunks when the wherry was under way. That means that some of the detail I put into the cabin will be visible. The doors needed to be open when the wherry was sailing because the mainsheet could be payed into the space in the cabin between the bunks. This in turn made it awkward for the skippers mate who may well have been tending the stove inside the cabin and brewing tea with his feet whilst gradually disappearing in among coils of 3-inch manila! (Details courtesy of Roy Clark).

 

 

The cabin was lined with wood, so I cut out a whole series of thin strips of 10thou card 2mm wide and plenty long enough, and glued them in place along the side and front walls of the cabin. I have left the rear wall as there is no way that can be seen, although I will add a couple of lockers to that later. I tried to leave just a hint of a gap for each 'plank', and when the glue had dried I ran a HB pencil along each joint to 'pre-shade' the joint ready for when I paint things.

 

 

All the sticky-up bits of the planking will be angled inwards to correlate with the angle of the hull sides and bulkheads, and should hopefully give a bit of extra strength.

 

 

I am building this interior in a series of modules. The next stage was to form the 'cockpit', where the skipper would stand to control the tiller, right by the opened door. I cut out a small rectangle of plastic, and got the size right first time this go, then trimmed out two sides and a rear for the enclosure. I marked everything up so I did not fit things the wrong way round (I have history on that!).

 

 

And finally, I had to ensure that the hold/cabin and cockpit fitted as they should...

 

 

 

...they fitted!

 

The next things I want to do for detail inside the cabin are to produce the coal bunker which is under the bunk, along with the lockers for kindling, veg and spuds. I am NOT filling the lockers with any of those in 1/72 before anyone suggests it! However, I will attempt to put in the bunks, stove, mantelshelf, and cupboard. I am minded to increase the height of the doorway a hint to allow a little extra 'viewability', I cannot read from the plan just how high the doorway was. I will paint it up in a wooden colour, but will blacken up quite a bit as I think the coal stove would kick out quite a bit of soot.

 

Well, that is that for now, thanks for looking and for the comments,

 

Ray

Edited October 3, 2018 by Ray S
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[longshanks]

Love the way this is going, your attention to detail is superb

 

Will get the barge bits sorted tomorrow 😉

 

Kev

[Courageous]

Wood, plastic, tape, all we need is a bit of resin/ PE and it'll be a full multi-media build.

Nice progress by the way.

 

Stuart

[seadog]

Very nice work with the card!

[Ray S]

Hello all!

 

Detailing continues for the time being. The first things to add to the cabin were the locker/bunker doors. I did not have any references for these, so I decided to do two side-opening doors, but different sizes. Inside the doors there would be a ledge which would then stop the coals or potatoes tumbling out. I trimmed out some 20thou card and scored the door edges, and painted them with some streaky Revell Acrylic Wood Brown, then varnished with Revell Clear Orange

 

 

I popped in a couple of door handles using .5mm rod and painted them gold, then fitted them:

 

 

Then I put in some bracing (rather than coal, spuds, kindling etc) behind the doors to act as a seat for the bunks later. The bunks were more 20thou card, with an edge of 10thou card to form a 'lip' which I then shaped - this will act act the stopper for the mattress and to prevent our skipper falling out of bed during the mates drunken return when he rocks the boat! I painted this with a darker wood brown and clear red varnish to give a bit of contrast.

 

 

 

The mattresses were made again from sheet plastic, but I slathered liquid cement all over the parts and distressed the surface with a knife to give a 'lived in' look, then painted them matt white, not worrying if the paint streaked - the more streaks the merrier but I suspect the white will have gone down perfectly this time by brush! Normally the mattresses would be rolled up, but this scene would be from before that was done. Folded blankets will be added later.

 

 

Of course, every wherryman works best on a full stomach, be it beer or a good fry up, so he needs a stove. The plans gave a good indication as to how big the stove was, so out came some of my earlier cut strips I was going to skin the boat with, and ended up with...

 

 

...a stove. The doors were made with paper glued to the front and would open downwards, and again the handles are .5mm rod. I have put a couple of hotplates on the top of the stove (which still need sanding down a bit), and later will put a flue at the back too. Test fitting this into the cabin by the forward bulkhead reveals that our skipper would be able to open the locker doors okay, as long as he did not have dodgy knees and back. From Black-Sailed Traders : "The stove is against the bulkhead facing the doors. It has a small oven and will roast meat or bake pies to perfection. On top it will fry steak, chops or bacon and boil vegetables. It burns coal, and is polished to such brilliance with black lead, that you can almost see to part your hair in it." I will not mention about the kettle or brown teapot because someone may get the idea that they should be added too.

 

I expect the cabin could get quite smokey as the crew often smoked cigarettes or pipes, and the stove would probably kick out smoke too. There was not much ventilation in the cabin, but there was an unglazed skylight in the cabin top, and two unglazed sidelights. Mr Clark says these can be opened and closed as required. Can anyone give me an idea as to how these would look please?

 

I am not sure how much of this detailing is going to be seen when the lid finally goes on, but some can be seen through the opened doors, so I must check and see how the openings would look, they may help see inside a bit.

 

I have almost finished planking the cargo hold now too, that has taken me quite some time, but getting into a routine helped. I am thinking of filling the hold with loose cargo, maybe wood planking or coal, or maybe even sand, so I will not be doing too much detailing/painting in the hold, but if I can find a supply of 1/72 cargo sack, I may use them instead.

 

Thanks for looking and the comments,

 

Ray

Edited October 6, 2018 by Ray S
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[longshanks]

I love the way that you're Living the Boat, way to go …………...

 

Can't help with the skylights, checked the plan. Perhaps worth looking the  pics in the book. you know the area so something might jump out now

 

Kev

[Ray S]

On 10/6/2018 at 3:36 PM, longshanks said:

I love the way that you're Living the Boat, way to go …………...

 

Can't help with the skylights, checked the plan. Perhaps worth looking the  pics in the book. you know the area so something might jump out now

 

Kev

 

Cheers, Kev. I may have a plan for the skylights...

 

I have still been beetling away with the probably never-to-be-seen-again cabin interior. On the rear bulkhead were two lockers just above the foot of the bunks. These held the crockery, cutlery, tinned goods, lard, butter (no modern fridges in those days!), sugar, tea, and such like (courtesy of Black-Sailed Traders, Mr Roy Clark). I decided that the skipper needed some colour in his life, so painted these red. I made them from three slices of 20thou card laminated, then skinned the sides with 10thou card and scored in the door breaks. Our crew also needed some blankets, so these were measured out onto some inkjet paper, and then I folded them just like I do our own blankets, and ended up with a slightly skew-whiff result, which is just what I was after (you try folding blankets in a confined space and try and get the edges aligned perfectly and you will see what I mean!). I painted one dark green and one dark grey, and they have been added at the fore-end of the respective bunks.

 

 

 

Any white bits of paper have now been repainted - it took the photo to show me my lack of painting skills, and the paint has also been matted down with some varnish now. The lockers have also received a second coat of red and a gloss varnish, and I have also 'sootied' up the cabin above where the stove will be.

 

 

 

 

I have also now completed the planking in the cargo hold, and added the angled section at the top of the hold. My intention is to put some beams along the top of the hold between the uprights but just below the lip of the wall, and with luck this will allow me to make the hatches and cabin roof just slightly over-sized and then flex them into place, thus creating the curved top-line that shows up in the plans. When that is done, I will be skinning the outer aft bulkhead to fill up the curved gap below the 'roof'.

 

 

I could not resist putting this module into the carved-out hull to see how things are coming along - do not be concerned about the excess plastic at the fore-end of the hold, that will be trimmed as required later on.

 

 

The final thing I am doing for the cabin is the stove. That has been shortened as I felt it was too tall and has now been gloss-blacked, with the two cooking hotplates in a matt dark grey and the door handles to the coal fire and oven picked out in gold (their little bit of opulence). I have built a chimney flue from solid rod (.8mm) and drilled out the opening at the top, and have added that to the stove now, and have checked the plans for the chimney height, which appears correct.

 

 

Yet again, the image shows where a spot of retouching with the paint is needed, at the bottom of the chimney flue.

 

That is where things stand at the moment, and that reminds me, I need to think of a display base for this wherry, and she falls to one side on her keel. Time for another ponder...

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Ray

 

PS - isn't it amazing how you miss things when you edit posts. Just found I had put two pictures the same in, but have now corrected that (hopefully).

[longshanks]

Awesome Ray,

 

Living the dream, mind you don't go sailing off into the sunset 😉

 

Kev

[seadog]

Love all the interior detail!

 

[Ray S]

@longshanks and @seadog, many thanks for the comments (and inspiration!).

 

One thing I have mentioned in this and other threads is an inability to 'read' plans adequately for scratch-building. Thankfully, eagle-eyed viewers will often steer me right, but it was my turn to find out I had boo-boo'd this time. There I was, quietly looking through photographs of the wherry Albion on the Norfolk Wherry Trust website, when I found a picture of the cockpit, and realised the proportions of my attempt were wrong. I had made mine with a full-depth drop down to the floor of the cabin, but the picture showed that the drop was quite small in comparison on Albion, and that would give the skipper a much better chance of reaching the tiller! I made an easy fix, by putting in a fresh deck to the cockpit, re-planked it and blanked off the forward part of the 'pit. It has now been painted and trimmed, and some edging fitted which will stand proud of the main deck later on. This now means that the skipper and crew mate would step down into the cabin, and when I look closely at the plan, there is the detail marked, ready for me to see, if only I had looked properly in the first place...

 

 

 

I have fitted a ledge just below the inside top of the hold walls which will be the resting place for the deck hatches and cabin roof and got that lot painted up now, and then something I had had in mind for a little while. I needed to skin the outside of the hold to create the gentle angle outwards that shows up on the plans for the main superstructure. I trimmed out some 20thou card and attached that along the top of the hold side walls, and needed to add a little persuasion to ensure they stuck down properly:

 

 

When my good lady Jane saw this lot, she said 'No wonder I never have enough pegs for the washing!'. With luck the outside skinning will slip down in the gap that runs along the opening where this module slips into the hull opening, and will give the effect I am after. I will need to do some trimming along the top line, but time will tell.

 

Another thing I saw when on the Norfolk Wherry Trust website was that the curved hatches overlap the edges of the hold slightly, so my idea of flexing a slip of plastic card onto the ledges would not look quite right as they would sit inboard of the hold walls, so I am experimenting with adding a wider strip of plastic on top of the original, thinking the original would fit into the inside of the hold, and the wider upper part would overlap. I just need the glue to set and then see if it is flexible or not. The alternative will be to find a jam jar and wrap the card around that and plunge it into hot water (minus lid!) and hope the heat will form the curve for me.

 

That is it for now, thanks for looking,

 

Ray

Edited October 12, 2018 by Ray S
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[seadog]

27 minutes ago, Ray S said:

The alternative will be to find a jam jar and wrap the card around that and plunge it into hot water (minus lid!) and hope the heat will form the curve for me.

This is what I did to make the hatches for 'Peace', sort of. Veneer, cut slightly oversize, dampened and taped to an old paint jar. 

[Ray S]

On 10/12/2018 at 4:13 PM, seadog said:

This is what I did to make the hatches for 'Peace', sort of. Veneer, cut slightly oversize, dampened and taped to an old paint jar. 

Thanks for that Seadog, I hoped I was on the right track with this - I had seen your method in your thread and thought it should work with plastic too!

 

I have finally glued in the plastic modules I had been building, but not until after another (ahem!) error...

 

The skinning I had added with the assistance of all those pegs failed dismally! I tried to slide the lot into the hold hole and, unlike when I dry fitted them, they would not slide in this time! I had cut the skinning long so it would go below the deck level, but for some reason it kept sticking into the balsa. No surprise really I suppose, but I had not considered that. So, I carefully measured out the height down to the deck and cut the excess off. When I was tired...

 

Result:

 

 

Yes, that's right, I cut at the high point of the deck, rather than the low point. Doh!!! Never mind, I am now on plan J,K or L, and will skin the skinning with thin plastic, but measure  PROPERLY this time, and shape the plastic before any glue gets committed.

 

In the meantime, I decided I did not like the pale sandy-yellow I had used for the hold walls and repainted that lot in the same wood brown as the cabin and cockpit, and am now much happier with that. I eventually glued in the main module and the cockpit, I used PVA to do that, and reinforced the cockpit/hold joint with Tamiya Extra Thin Qiuck Drying Cement. In an unusual development, the fit was really snug and tight, and could even have been planned!

 

 

 

I thought it was time to get involved at the front, aka the Forepeak. This was the third division of the hull, and was where the mast was seated, and was designed to allow space for the foot of the mast to swing forward as the mast was lowered back. I had made the base for the forepeak earlier, but today I measured and built up the sides and front of it, and got it all planked. I should have added some shelves which provided storage space for paint, tar, mops, shovels, etc, but only remembered them when I was checking on my notes as I typed this.

 

 

 

When I do the final version of the side skinning, that will give me the chance to build up the forward upper sections of the hold, as I will then know the final shape and size. This will need to be really solid, because above this area will be the large tabernacle, which will hold the mast. I am shaping up a length of wooden dowel to hopefully produce the mast, and am wondering whether I could possibly make it workable. It is just a thought at the moment.

 

The other thing that is going though my bonce at the moment is how to display this boat when it is done. I had it in mind to have a couple of hatches off the hold to show some cargo. But in the back of my mind too is to have the black sail in full blow. I wonder if the skipper would be sent to Fiddler's Green for setting sail with hatches open? I think the way I will go is to have the two or three hatches open, mast up, the gaff down, and the sail furled. I know I will miss out on the most recognisable aspect of the wherry, but it would be more in keeping with wherry life I think.

 

Oh, then I have to think about the blocks for the rigging.

 

That is that for now, more soon with luck.

 

Ray

Edited October 15, 2018 by Ray S
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[robgizlu]

Super detailing Roy - Thoroughly enjoying this and the wood effects are particularly effective

Rob

[longshanks]

Good progress

I find the only way to do a job properly is to do it a couple of times 😉

 

 

I reckon you could have your cake and eat it ....

A lot of trips would be made in coastal waters. So couple of planks out of hatch. Sail set but keep the water calm 🙂

 

Kev

[seadog]

Great work.  I try not to do any critical work when im tired.....but then you think it would be good just to do x before I stop... I have a good pile of  botched bits.

[Ray S]

17 hours ago, robgizlu said:

Super detailing Roy - Thoroughly enjoying this and the wood effects are particularly effective

Rob

Cheers Rob, the main paint I use is Revell 382 Wood Brown acrylic. I used to be wary of it because it does not seem to be a solid colour paint, but it does produce some nice streaky (wood grain) effects as I found out when I did a vacform float plane in a GB recently (a Burgess-Dunne WW1 job), and since then I really love this paint.

 

15 hours ago, longshanks said:

Good progress

I find the only way to do a job properly is to do it a couple of times 😉

 

 

I reckon you could have your cake and eat it ....

A lot of trips would be made in coastal waters. So couple of planks out of hatch. Sail set but keep the water calm 🙂

 

Kev

 

I am beginning to learn the 'two or three attempt' lark on this one, a few things have failed, and I hope I am learning as I go along! I promise that if I make the same boo-boo again, it will be documented - I try not to self-censor...

 

Kev, I am not going to put this into a water setting, these boats were so often fully laden and the water lapped onto the deck at the lowest point of sheer (hence the saying that they were not fully laden unless a robin could drink off the deck), so there would not be too much to see above water. Unless I pinch your idea of a display box frame, and have the boat sat in a clear perspex 'river' or broad setting. Mmm...

 

9 hours ago, seadog said:

Great work.  I try not to do any critical work when im tired.....but then you think it would be good just to do x before I stop... I have a good pile of  botched bits.

Seadog, this is a lesson I have been given numerous times, but it does not sink in. One day...

 

Today, I have been trying to deal with the first stage of the deck planking. In 'Black-Sailed Traders', Roy Clark said that the deck was planked from bow to the fore part of the hold, and from the rear of the cabin to the stern, with the deck alongside the main hold and cabin being planked with a single piece of wood either side (this is contrary to the plans of Gleaner in the book).

 

I CAREFULLY measured out the area for the side planks, and cut out a section of paper then trimmed it so it fitted along the slight curvature of the hold/cabin. Then tried it again, and again. Each time, it fitted pretty closely, so I taped the paper to some card, and cut out the shape. This was done over-sized so it overhung the deck, then I trimmed back more closely, double checked the fit and was happy. There are two problems with fitting this plank - camber, and sheer. I ran the plastic shape through my fingers to get some bend fore/aft for the sheer, then rolled it around a cylinder to get the camber, and tried the fit again, and was happy. Then I took about 10 minutes wondering whether to put the bead of PVA glue down, and was I thinking straight, before I committed. The glue went on, I smeared it thinner with a metal probe, let the glue go off for a couple of minutes and then placed the plank down, and lo and behold, it conformed to the shape well! There are a few small gaps along the hold edge, but a smear of filler will solve that later. Then I did the same for the other side. Both parts are now taped down, I have used a wet cotton bud to clean up the glue, and I hope it will all set okay for me now. It looks alright to me, and I put them on about an hour ago, and the PVA seems to be setting. Hopefully I will get some photographs of the result tomorrow, I do not want to tempt providence.

 

Thanks for looking and the comments and encouragement,

 

Ray

[Ray S]

There has been a little more progress to the wherry.

 

I have fitted the decking to the whole boat now. First, I needed to trim down the one-piece decking alongside the hold on both beams. That was fine, except the glue did not hold properly. I was using some sanding blocks and sanding up/down (trying to ensure that I did not ruin the hull 'planking'), when 'slap' went one of the deck boards. Oh, no! I thought to myself, and found one of them had partially parted company from the boat. Thankfully it was able to be re-glued. I had originally used Deluxe Materials Speed Bond 5-minute white glue to fit the plastic to the balsa (as recommended by my local model shop for exactly this use), but looking at the pack after this mishap, it did not say anything about bonding plastic (wood, foam, fabric, and paper but not plastic), so out came the gel CA and I repaired the work with that. I wonder if Glue'N'Glaze would have worked better - it seems to dry flexibly, whereas Speed Bond seemed to dry brittle.

 

When it came to doing the individual planks at the bow and stern, I tried another tack (sorry!). I used two-part epoxy this time. I have always had a spot of bother using this stuff, never seeming to get it mixed properly and creating something of a mess, especially as the stuff 'strings' quite a bit. Anyway, I cut out 2mm widths of the same plastic card I used for the larger planks with my guillotine (the plans show the planks to be 1mm, but it would not cut that thin), trimmed plenty to length and smeared on the epoxy. The planks went down fairly well, but showed up any inaccuracies in the original sanding of the hull to shape. The epoxy set quite quickly and I was able to get about 6-7 strips down before I had to mix up another batch. I gave it a day or so to set properly, and then trimmed the excess with some side-cutters and sanded (carefully!) the edges and top surfaces. The whole lot still needs a bit more sanding to blend in plank heights, but I am getting there.

 

After I had fitted the main side boards, I filled the gap between them and the hold walls with filler to give a relatively smooth transition, thinking that would be better than skinning yet again as I had originally planned. So far it all looks reasonably smooth, but primer later will show that I was mistaken, methinks.

 

Here is where she is at the moment:

 

 

 

 

There is still the plancea, bin iron, and sheerstrake (sounds like I know what I am on about, doesn't it!) to fit around the hull edges, and that lot will hide any irregularities along the hull/planking line, and give me headaches trying to make it all stick to the boat.

 

So far I am thoroughly enjoying this project, it has been a challenge and I am learning something new with almost everything I do with it. Thanks for looking,

 

Ray

Edited October 19, 2018 by Ray S
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