Bertie Builds a Boat - Lady Isabella - Scots 'Zulu' Herring Drifter - Finished ! ! !

[Bertie McBoatface]

7 minutes ago, roginoz said:

Hello Bertie,

 

Late as usual, but thoroughly enjoying your first attempt at maritime modelling.

 

Strangely enough I've been considering having a go at it myself, becoming a  bit bored with cockpits, wheel wells, camouflage and the like and keen to have a crack at something like this.

Something similar to the craft you are building might be suitable especially as I qualify as a beginner [of boats] and no more than an intermediate modeller of other subjects. Added to that, who could fail to be impressed with such a pretty craft !

 

So I 'll have a look at Chris' website and check out something suitable, at the same time cheering your progress and sympathising with your struggles.

Your thread is providing much inspiration ! Onward 'n' upward !

Roger the Cabin Boy

 

hi Rog, I've been watching you read through this via the notifications🙂

 

There are four boats in his range that he recommends for beginners. Drop him a PM, he's a very helpful bloke.

 

I'm having no trouble with this one so far but the complicated parts are rapidly approaching. 😱

[Faraway]

Bertie.

Well you are making some excellent progress, now my Covid addled (I don’t think I’ve ever coughed SO much) brain is able to understand human speech, I’m back to following this. Interesting what was said about wooden v plastic builds, from my POV, I’ve seen some plastic builds on this forum, that you would swear are wood AND visa versa.

Jon

[Bertie McBoatface]

52 minutes ago, Faraway said:

Bertie.

Well you are making some excellent progress, now my Covid addled (I don’t think I’ve ever coughed SO much) brain is able to understand human speech, I’m back to following this. Interesting what was said about wooden v plastic builds, from my POV, I’ve seen some plastic builds on this forum, that you would swear are wood AND visa versa.

Jon

 

Hello Jon, I'm glad you are feeling better.

 

Yes, as the man was heard to say as he passed the 25th floor of the skyscraper from which he was falling, "So far, so good!"

 

This forum and the boat forum are as different as wood and plastic, Brit and American predominating respectively. However, there are more similarities than differences, I've already encountered the everlasting schism between rivet counters and ... What is the opposite to a rivet counter? And what is the maritime equivalent? Knot scrutineers? ("That's a Williams knot where there should be a reverse wound Henderson!")

[Faraway]

38 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

What is the opposite to a rivet counter?

Weld watcher ?

[Bertie McBoatface]

3 minutes ago, Faraway said:

Weld watcher ?

It needs the same disparaging tone as rivet counter when used by the other sort, those who aren't that bothered by considerations of accuracy and realism.

 

Toy builder?

 

Sloppy modeller?

 

Artist? (pronounced with a sneer)

[Bertie McBoatface]

My bulwarks are glued up nice and comfy. I'm a very happy chappie!

 

 

The patterns dried really quickly and held their new shape very well. I'd expected to leave then overnight so this was effectively a day saved in the build. They are the inner layer of the outside of the boat but the outer layer of the inside. I just wanted to make that clear.

 

 

There's a warning not to glue the tabs on the frames to the bulwark patterns, because the tabs aren't part of the finished boat - they just help align the bulwark patterns actually and will soon be discarded. A warning has never been enough to stop me so I wrapped them in Sellotape which would perhaps deter me from splashing the glue too high, and would certainly prevent the tabs sticking to the pattern even in the case of capillary driven seepage. As it happened I DID put glue on one of them (idiot) but it wiped off instantly and I'm not telling anyone about it if you don't.

 

The four patterns, sticky with this really grabby glue slid into place perfectly. The bulge that I saw first thing this morning changed slightly, on both sides. @Peanut6, a MSW member. was  on the right track when he pointed out the importance of the sequence of applying the clamps. This time I clipped the tops all the way along before going below to clamp the lower edge. The 'sprung section now extended over two frames but wasn't as severe. I still used my shims though. First the ones I had prepared. (This photo was taken before the gluing.)

 

 

Once the shim was in place, I snapped off its tail and quickly filed another one for the next frame along.

 

 

Between the two of them I was able to restore a really nice smooth curve to the aft quarters. Had I perhaps taken off too much during the fairing operation? Once the glue's dried and the clamps are out of the way, I'll investigate this by putting some planks in place and examining the lines. If this is the problem, I'll be building the frames up again with slips of veneer. I don't want to make the planking any harder than it has to be.

 

 

One last point 😄. The point of the stern in fact. It resisted all my attempts to clamp it this morning as every clamp I tried simply pinged off the angle. So this afternoon I glued a pair of pearwood sticks either side. Now I'm certain that the bulwark patterns will be glued firmly right to the end and all I have to do is slice and sand the sticks away in the morning.

 

See you tomorrow.

 

[psdavidson]

2 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

My bulwarks are glued up nice and comfy.

Fnarr, as is oft said elsewhere on this forum. 

Sorry if this was the thread you were trying to keep "sane" but that was too good an opportunity to pass up 

 

/P

[Bertie McBoatface]

54 minutes ago, psdavidson said:

Fnarr, as is oft said elsewhere on this forum. 

Sorry if this was the thread you were trying to keep "sane" but that was too good an opportunity to pass up 

 

/P

No. That’s the thread on the Model Ship World forum. Polite, polished and professional. Absolutely nowt like us! 
 

I only put the jokes and straight man feeds in over here 🥳

[Bertie McBoatface]

Actually @psdavidson my log is starting to wander on that side too. You just can’t keep a good man down. 

[psdavidson]

9 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

my log is starting to wander on that side too

One just has to spread the madness. It's just not fair to keep it to oneself.

[Bertie McBoatface]

1 hour ago, psdavidson said:

One just has to spread the madness. It's just not fair to keep it to oneself.

 

I'm working on both sites at the moment, as you know, but posting two updates every time is a bit of a pain. Here we have good banter and tons of encouragement on the site as a whole but very little traffic in the maritime section and almost no wooden building. Across the pond, the MSW guys have great expertise in the sub-genre but the style of the site is rather business-like and aside from 'likes'  there's comparatively little written encouragement. This is enforced by the site owners, who are the Nautical Research Guild and take things mighty seriously. They even host the photos so that nothing will ever be lost to posterity. 

 

This warning is repeated in large, bold, brightly-coloured text at the start of every subsection of the build log (WIP) area:

 

PLEASE NOTE.....Build logs are to be light hearted places for members to discuss the building of their model. It is NOT the place for senseless chatter and conversation. Please DO NOT post nonsense in another persons log. They might be nice and not say anything to you but that doesn't mean you can hi-jack their build logs. It makes reading through the logs a horrible experience for 99% of our members. 

 

KEEP THE NONSENSE CHATTER AND SNARKY HUMOR OUT OF THE LOGS AND KEEP THEM ON TOPIC....all people who don't comply will be warned...and all non relevant content will be deleted.

 

Sometimes a draconian law just tells you that the prohibited thing happens a lot and they are trying desperately to curb it. 😄 Perhaps I'll get a slap on the wrist soon for Bertie-style Banter. 🤪 It could go either way.

 

Senseless/nonsense chatter is what we excel in here on BM, and we tend towards a more lighthearted British flavoured approach. For me, that's the thing that has improved my mental health so significantly since I joined here last July. Almost every time I log on, there's a friendly conversation waiting for me. It's like going down the pub used to be in my younger days. On MSW, not so much, but remember, there aren't as many members there as here.

 

Perhaps the best thing would be to run my WIP over here and just ask specific tech questions and post RFI over there. I'll make that decision when Lady Isabella is gently rocking at the quayside in a month or so. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Edit for afterthought.

 

Maybe the wooden ship genre tends towards conservatism and taking it very seriously because of the extraordinary investment in time and treasure that these kits demand?

 

[Faraway]

26 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Senseless/nonsense chatter is what we excel in here on BM,

It might, sometimes, come across like that.
But there is a lot of wisdom behind the chatter and wisdom that is always freely shared. 

Yes, we might babble on a bit, but deep down we love our hobby and gain great satisfaction from it. And I might add, gain great satisfaction from sharing our knowledge. 
Jon

[Bertie McBoatface]

2 hours ago, Faraway said:

It might, sometimes, come across like that.
But there is a lot of wisdom behind the chatter and wisdom that is always freely shared. 

Yes, we might babble on a bit, but deep down we love our hobby and gain great satisfaction from it. And I might add, gain great satisfaction from sharing our knowledge. 
Jon

 

I can't say that either forum is right or wrong in their approach, they are simply different. I believe each one takes its tone from the people 'at the top', the way a school is always a reflection of the Headmaster. We have Mike at the helm and MSW has an organisation dedicated to academic research. 

 

In all this musing I realise that I have unjustly polarised the two forums. In fact there is some pleasant 'nonsense chatter' on MSW just as there is serious academic research carried out by some Britmodellers. So please remember that, being Bertie, I'm talking in vast sweeping generalisations, and never take anything I say too seriously. 🤪

[ColonelKrypton]

37 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I can't say that either forum is right or wrong in their approach, they are simply different. I believe each one takes its tone from the people 'at the top', the way a school is always a reflection of the Headmaster.

 

It takes all kinds to make the world go round. 

 

I am enjoying your fishing boat build and the of course the interesting banter as well.

 

cheers, Graham

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

1 minute ago, ColonelKrypton said:

 

It takes all kinds to make the world go round. 

 

I am enjoying your fishing boat build and the of course the interesting banter as well.

 

cheers, Graham

 

 

It makes me happy to know that people are enjoying it, thanks. 

 

I'm in the happy position of having two equally challenging and enjoyable builds on the go at the moment. I'm working hard on each one so that I can get my hands on the other, in a mutual motivation pas de deux! Ha!

 

[Maginot]

Quote

Senseless/nonsense chatter is what we excel in here on BM

 

How dare you! I'm always Deadly Earnest on BM.

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

Well guys, it's official. I'm a planker. I'm a planker. And it's done me good!

 

This evening, on the spur of the moment, I laid my first plank on the Lady. I didn't take many photos because I was very excited and my hands were shaking a bit too.

 

First I soaked it warm water for half an hour. I did this in my washing up bowl which meant bending it to fit. This worked in my favour by instilling a curve in it before it even got to lay alongside her flanks.

 

 

I had bought this little toy for pushing tiny brassed pins straight through it and nailing it into her ribs.

 

I guess it was designed for the regular sized carpenter because it was far too big for me.

 

 

I eventually resorted to a small pair of pliers which held it firm and allowed me to push it in. Sometimes it bent when I pushed hard but mostly it slid in easily and stuck fast. I could tell when it was fully home by the glue oozing out of the crack.

 

 

These are actually incredibly tiny but you can't tell that in this photo. They could easily be nine inches long. It's a disappointing picture for you here but I may be able to use that technique on other sites. 

 

 

I was trying to make the end a pleasingly tight fit up her sternpost so I used my Tamiya side cutters to trim the end into a diagonal tip. They are perfect for the job enabling me to take very tiny slices off until it felt just right.

 

Of course I also had to thin down the side where the plank rode up her bulwarks. This was more difficult. I'd offer it up and where it lifted, make a pencil mark. I made another pencil mark on the end where it seemed likely to bed in. Then I zipped a slice off the last two or three inches with a Stanley knife and a straight edge. Remember it was still wet from the washing up and the knife sliced through very cleanly.

 

 

Afterwards, I filed a slot in my piers for better purchase next time. My goodness it's very dirty in there!

 

 

And her she is. The clamps are just me being strict and holding her tight while the glue sets. I don't want her moving around and making a mess. I wont use them in future, the pins will do the job well enough. 

 

 

That's the bit I had trouble with yesterday. Now you see why I'll need my home made small parts shoved in underneath when I take a sheet of coarse sandpaper to her unsightly bulges.

 

I hope tonight's update was informative and historically significant. If you have any questions about planking, remember Bertie's your man.

 

Toodle pip!

 

 

[psdavidson]

I've heard that the first time planking isn't always a pleasant experience

I'm glad to hear yours came off OK. 

 

I'll say no more, there are just too many opportunities 🤐 I could get into trouble

 

/P

 

 

 

[Dancona]

28 minutes ago, psdavidson said:

I'll say no more, there are just too many opportunities 🤐 I could get into trouble

Too damn right my friend, but I hear it said that people who build Napoleonic plank on frame first rate ships of the line too quickly can develop sudden blindness, just saying 😁

[Bertie McBoatface]

36 minutes ago, Dancona said:

Too damn right my friend, but I hear it said that people who build Napoleonic plank on frame first rate ships of the line too quickly can develop sudden blindness, just saying 😁

I can’t wait to get alongside the futtock shrouds of my first Man of War.

[Bertie McBoatface]

1 hour ago, psdavidson said:

I've heard that the first time planking isn't always a pleasant experience

 

It depends whether you get caught at it. 
 

1 hour ago, psdavidson said:

I'll say no more, there are just too many opportunities 🤐 I could get into trouble

 

/P

 

 

 

 

I may not post this one in the other place. 

[roginoz]

There are so many potential "fnaaaaar"s in this build that those of a smutty inclination among us could  have a field day !

 

However, I won't sully this fascinating build with my own baser instincts, simply having a quiet snigger to myself and then getting on with the more important business of appreciating proper modelling.

 

Rog

[Cerberus]

3 minutes ago, roginoz said:

There are so many potential "fnaaaaar"s in this build that those of a smutty inclination among us could  have a field day !

 I was just thinking exactly the same thing 

 

 I daren't say anything because I seem to remember @Bertie Psmith saying that he wanted to keep this build log clean... ... 

 

3 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

This evening, on the spur of the moment, I laid my first plank on the Lady. I didn't take many photos because I was very excited and my hands were shaking a bit too.

 I lost some tea back into my tea cup at this comment... 🤣

 

 I dread to think what he's saying on that 'other' more serious forum, I'm tempted to go have a look...

 

 Matt

[Bertie McBoatface]

6 hours ago, roginoz said:

There are so many potential "fnaaaaar"s in this build that those of a smutty inclination among us could  have a field day !

 

However, I won't sully this fascinating build with my own baser instincts, simply having a quiet snigger to myself and then getting on with the more important business of appreciating proper modelling.

 

Rog

Sniggers are just what we need in these troubled times. 🤭
 

Just be extremely careful not to make a typo on that word! 😳

[ArnoldAmbrose]

1 minute ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Sniggers are just what we need in these troubled times.

Gidday, the odd LOL and guffaw doesn't hurt either. On a serious note (yes, honestly 😇) the lady is shaping up nicely. Regards, Jeff.