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

[Bertie McBoatface]

 

My six waxed spars. There are some circumferential marks where I was too heavy-handed with the tapering operations, but it's not too bad and it's another lesson learned. I don't know whether you can see the difference from the pre-wax photo (repeated below)? Both were taken in direct sunshine today.

 

 

They certainly feel very different and to my eye the shine looks like old polished wood from a distance.

 

The Lady Isabella has six spars. HMS Beagle has sixteen and HMS Bellerophon, which is where all this is leading, has thirty-two.

[ColonelKrypton]

2 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Lol the possibilities are endless!

 

Indeed. Sometimes to the point of interfering with just getting on with the job - 'Analysis Paralysis'

 

cheers, Graham

 

[ColonelKrypton]

On 5/23/2022 at 4:05 PM, Bertie Psmith said:

Did you ever buy a book, fail to read it properly and think that you had done the research that you intended? 

 

I get so driven by the need to do something with my hands ... that sometimes I forget that research is also a part of modelling, ...

 

 

Constantly and it causes me to spend more time rushing around trying to do a bit of everything instead of just spending more time concentrating one thing.  Old work habits die hard it seems.

 

cheers, Graham

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

3 hours ago, ColonelKrypton said:

 

Indeed. Sometimes to the point of interfering with just getting on with the job - 'Analysis Paralysis'

 

cheers, Graham

 

 

Looking at what's left on this boat, I should be able to do it in a week. A fortnight at the most. "Should be able" except for all the untidy stuff rattling around in my head and wasting so much time. I could rig the Victory with all of the loose ends that I have tripping me up right now!

 

3 hours ago, ColonelKrypton said:

 

Constantly and it causes me to spend more time rushing around trying to do a bit of everything instead of just spending more time concentrating one thing.  Old work habits die hard it seems.

 

cheers, Graham

 

 

DITTO that! 

 

I'm single, retired and answer to no-one.* I have money, space, time, all the resources needed to sort it all out and live a mindful and satisfying life. Yet old work, and life habits keep me up to my thighs in chaos very reminiscent of the chaos within. 

 

Maybe I need a holiday. This retirement thing is just exhausting.

 

 

 

* Apart from the dog. I definitely do what the dog tells me.

[Bertie McBoatface]

Some of these things happened yesterday and some today - I can no longer be sure which! The hosting site was being awkward last night so I didn't post as usual.

 

While the hull was drying... There's a lot of that in boat building, waiting for things to dry, and so far I've been drifting off and doing something unproductive while that's been happening. Unproductive of anything but belly fat that is. I generally drift towards the kitchen. From now on, I work this build like any other model and crack on with different sub assemblies while the paint/glue/varnish/marmalade is drying.

 

 

You wouldn't believe the trouble this tiny square of wood gave me. It did not want to stick together at all and when I persuaded it to do that, it didn't like being square. Hence the square nut which I used as a jig. It's not a perfect fit but I could push it into the corners as I needed. Given my appalling eyesight, just having something square inside helped me to see that it was ok. Have you got square nuts? If not, I recommend them.

 

What I was building was the steering box. Early Zulus had a tiller to turn the rudder but this is a later version with a ship's wheel and a geared arrangement to make steering easier. Curiously, the wheel is mounted horizontally like a roulette wheel and I think the helmsman sat on the corner of the box and steered from there so that he could see underneath the sails. All mod cons eh?

 

 

That's the kit supplied version. I didn't like the flat featureless top of the box. It's made from pearwood so I could have scored some plank outlines into it and stained them like the deck but I was feeling adventurous. My son made me some planks a while back. His first trial attempt was with African Sapele and I veneered the lid with some of that.

 

 

It's a bit rough and ready. It gave me a taste of what planking a deck will be like.

 

 

Sanded, sealed and waxed and with a sealing thingie from the spares box, I think it's a worthwhile improvement.

 

The other thing that I disliked about the kit supplied wheel was its flatness. PE is not really the material for making round things from and the spokes of the wheel just looked daft. They were very fragile too.

 

 

I tried to give the wheel, and the hatch cover handles,  some 'body' with solder. This also made everything much stiffer (see square nuts above). The pieces are in a milk bottle top about to have that burnt flux soaked away in a bath of IPA.

 

 

After cleaning and painting with Humbrol gloss straight from the tin, there's a lot more roundness to those curiously erect red hand holds.

 

 

A quick rub down with steel wool first thing in the morning took the shine of my timbers. I was tempted to leave it at that but decided to apply another even thinner coat of Yacht Varnish, just to see what difference it would make. 

 

 

Doesn't that wood look gorgeous? This is about 1/3 varnish 2/3 thinner and half of the thinner was odourless thinner from Daler which might speed the drying. It still smelt wonderfully of mineral spirits though. I've just returned from a dog walk and the flat smells really good - like a proper shed should - of white spirit, Humbrol paint, wax, sawdust and bacon sandwiches. You can hardly detect the smalls of my old socks and the dog's sick at all.

 

 

I varnish with a make up brush (cheap Chinese multipack from Amazon). It holds a lot, so I can work the whole side of the boat with only two dips into the pot, and is soft so it doesn't generate bubbles.

 

 

These are the fish hatch cover handles in naked PE. 

 

 

Soldered and painted, they look a little more like cast iron rings.

 

 

All 48 of them!

 

 

Next up were the funnels. The boat has a steam driven capstan for hauling in the nets. All modern conveniences indeed. When the capstan was driven round by a couple of blokes below decks in the heaving, stinking darkness, the poor lads would walk thirteen miles in a circle to haul the 1-2 miles of nets. It wasn't a walk in the park either, they would be pushing hard all the way. 

 

There are two funnels, first was the thin one for the steam discharge. All that required was the hole in the end reaming out. This was to give the impression of a thin walled tube, as the aluminium tube supplied was rather thick. I'm really enjoying making all these little modifications, juat as I would with a plastic kit.

 

The second funnel for the smoke, was a fat one with a bend in the end to stop rain putting the fire out? No, probably to make the fire draw better. I guess it would be turned to point downwind.

 

 

I knew I couldn't possibly cut and rejoin the tube accurately so I took a triangular needle file and removed a wedge as shown before bending it and 'welding' with superglue. This funnel was also reamed out at the end.

 

 

As issued.

 

 

After reaming. You can tell I'd painted that ship's wheel by this point. Why am I using Humbrol? It just seems the right sort of paint to be using. Old school paint for an old school model. I have an old book on 'Old Time' ship modelling and the techniques don't seem to have changed since it was written in 1929, and not much since those Egyptians made model boats to go into the pyramids 4500 years ago. It ddin't feel right to use acrylic paint (though I will probably go with Tamiya when I spray the hull).

 

 

There's the welded funnel. 

 

 

And there's the business end of the capstan! The little winch wheel on the side I guess would be handy for raising the sails. I had thickened up the whelps, the 'teeth' on the big round section, with solder as before.

 

 

It looks better painted. (And now I see the paint on the winch wheel!)

 

 

I sanded back to brass very gently, to emphasise the shape and the solidity of the thing.

 

 

That roller arrangement is where the nets were drawn out of the net hold when they were being laid? Released? (I have disremembered the proper word.) I don't think it makes sense, the rollers seem to be more of a hindrance than a help positioned where they are, but I have no evidence for that so I left it as is.

 

 

And one last detail; I made a wheel axle from a turned cannon barrel from a dreadnaught. Aren't spares boxes wonderful.

 

So that's last night and this morning. Finally I have extracted the digit and got on with the job! I'm sorry to have kept you waiting.

 

 

[psdavidson]

3 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

The hosting site was being awkward last night so I didn't post as usual.

It did seem rather quiet around here, now I know why

[ColonelKrypton]

3 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I tried to give the wheel, and the hatch cover handles,  some 'body' with solder.

 

That is a good idea. I have done similar using a bit of thick epoxy to built up small featureless pieces - works well on plastic ( solder wouldn't ) 

 

I will have to give this a try on some PE when the need arises.

 

the varnish is looking good. I think I prefer a more satin finish rather than a high gloss on a model. 

 

cheers,  Graham

[Bertie McBoatface]

3 hours ago, ColonelKrypton said:

I have done similar using a bit of thick epoxy to built up small featureless pieces - works well on plastic (

 

Wood glue also works on plastic but probably not so permanently and there's always shrinkage.

[Bertie McBoatface]

 

The deck and deckhouse are fitted. Lady Isabella is becoming increasingly boat-like.

 

 

Next is fitting the timberheads. They are the tops of the real boat's frames which stick up through the deck supporting the bulwarks. They are major structural members and a lot of the rigging will be attached to them. There are fifty each side so that will keep me occupied for a while.

[Courageous]

5 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

timberheads

Everything is looking fantastic there Bertie and you're maritime lingo is improving to such an extent that I sometimes I fail to understand you. Keep up the good work.

 

Stuart

[SafetyDad]

Lovely work there Bertie. The hull has come up really well - take a bow sir!

 

SD

[Faraway]

Well, that's looking most excellent. The hull looks beautiful.

Jon

[Bertie McBoatface]

7 hours ago, SafetyDad said:

Lovely work there Bertie. The hull has come up really well - take a bow sir!

 

SD

 

6 hours ago, Faraway said:

Well, that's looking most excellent. The hull looks beautiful.

Jon

Thanks mates! 
 

It’s turning into a rather lovely little thing, if I say so myself. 

[Bertie McBoatface]

 

Things keep rolling along. Today was a deck furniture day, not chairs, but all the remaining bits and pieces EXCEPT the 100 timberheads which will be like the tracks on a Bronco tank, or two!

 

That photo shows the mainmast in its lowered position. It's our Lady Isabella sitting with her legs crossed. They did this at sea while waiting for the little fishies to blunder into the nets. I think this was to lower the center of gravity of the craft and make it 'stiffer' which in Nauticalese means it doesn't roll so much. It would be more comfortable that way while most of the crew slept. They would keep a small sail up on the after mast to keep them straight and I suppose pointing into the waves.

 

The need to raise and lower that big mast explains the great big box or tabernacle it sits in, and that was today's main task.

 

 

The sides or cheeks don't fit like Tamiya. Here they are resting on the sub-deck in their locating slots but not touching the sides of the opening in the deck. There's a lot of slop in wooden boat construction and that's all part of the fun.

 

 

If I glue them to the sides of the opening, the mast will be a sloppy fit and I definitely want that joint to be perfect so that the mast is vertical when installed later.

 

 

That shows you  the full depth of the tabernacle. This is the inner face of the cheek, with a suggestion of separate planks applied with a pin and some acrylic ink. It will be hard to see, so a mere suggestion will probably be enough.

 

 

This is the hole in the deck. Those vertical frames are set back but that doesn't mean I can't use them to brace my cheeks against a big blow in the North Sea. I glued a horizontal rail to the backside of the cheeks so that it would impinge on that pair of frames. (I'm awful sorry but I neglected to take a picture.)

 

 

I made the shims oversize, as you see here and then it was just dry fit and sand, dry fit and sand until everything lined up properly.

 

 

The big mast is a good friction fit between my cheeks and the gaps in the deck are even on both sides of the tabernacle. I hope that will make them unnoticeable to the casual observer.

 

 

The fake planking in the hole looks even better than I expected. I've added the supports either side too and given the whole thing a coat of sanding sealer.

 

 

And the PE is about all that's left to photograph today. I did spend some time preparing some more pieces for the deck but they can't go on until after the 100 timberheads are fitted. So I took the dog for a walk and attempted to forget about them, all 100 of them. Did I mention how many of them there are? Did I mention that they all have to be filed to fit the constantly changing angles between deck and bulwark? 

 

Oh well, maybe it will be therapeutic rather than annoying. Yeah, right.

 

😁

 

[ColonelKrypton]

20 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

The big mast is a good friction fit between my cheeks and the gaps in the deck are even on both sides of the tabernacle. I hope that will make them unnoticeable to the casual observer.

 

Really starting to look like a boat ready to head out to the fishing grounds.

 

I know that certain types of hull planking is supplemented with a rope like caulking as I also recall seeing decks treated the same way. I wonder if you could fill some of that gap with some largish thread or smallish twine suitably (depending on gap size) tinted and fixed into place with a wee bit of diluted PVA or just plain friction? Might add a bit of extra dimension or texture. 

 

I wonder if many of the builders on the Model Ship World bother?  

 

I did a quick search - seems most don't bother and just add a bit of darker colour (drawn in place) to represent the caulking and some others use a darkish coloured paper glued between the planks. 

 

cheers, Graham

 

[Dmitriy1967]

In addition to the beautiful ship and interesting work, I like to read your texts. They're like music. 🙂

[Bertie McBoatface]

10 minutes ago, ColonelKrypton said:

I wonder if you could fill some of that gap with some largish thread or smallish twine suitably (depending on gap size) tinted and fixed into place with a wee bit of diluted PVA or just plain friction? Might add a bit of extra dimension or texture. 

That’s an interesting idea but one I’ll save for the next ship. I’m keen to press on. The gap is very small anyway. 

11 minutes ago, Dmitriy1967 said:

In addition to the beautiful ship and interesting work, I like to read your texts. They're like music. 🙂

Aw, thank you. ☺️

[psdavidson]

3 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

The big mast is a good friction fit between my cheeks

oooh missus

Your boat's looking nicely ship-shape

 

/P

[Bertie McBoatface]

Well the timberheads are all on. I can prove it, look.

 

 

I think it looks very good. It certainly makes the boat look bigger, seeing all that framing. 

 

I decided to use the dreaded CA glue because wood glue would glue me to the bench for a couple of days and I'm getting impatient now and rushing to the finish line. Or at least, rushing to start the rigging lines which will be fascinating, I think. Anyway, I wore rubber gloves for the process and since the parts were too small to hold in my fingers and I can easily use tweezers with gloves on, that was no hardship. I did forget to put them back on after dinner and my right hand started to burn almost as soon as I plunged it into the toxic vapours above the glue! Using so much of that stuff on the hull has really sensitised me, probably for life. Bottomer!

 

 

So I had fast glue, and I soon realised that the attachment points for the parts did not need cleaning up, because the next thing to attach is a rail which runs across the centre of every one of them. If that was deliberate, it was a smart move. I decided not to bother cleaning the laser charring from the sides of the pieces - that could stand for shadows, and you know how I like my shadows and highlights. So that dreaded job was suddenly looking a lot more cheerful. However...

 

Look at the fret and tell me what's calculated to confuse. That's right, the pieces for the left side of the boat are on the right side of the fret. If that was deliberate it was malicious! And 'left' and 'right'? What happened to port and starboard? That's me spreading the blame a bit but now, I'll confess to being one of the many people who have always struggled with the left/right thing. The module in my head that is supposed to deal with that simple distinction has been a curse to every drill instructor who was unlucky enough to find me in his flight. AND remember the strange thing about this boat - the sharp end is at the back.

 

Putting all these factors together, you know what had to happen. I'd affixed about six of them before I realised I was working not only the wrong side of the boat but because I started in the middle, I was also going in the wrong direction. 

 

I couldn't get the superglues bits off again so I swapped sides and carried on, hoping to sort things out as I went because all of the middle bits are more or less the same height anyway (apart from a few which are shorter to fit under thwarts). Well, I swapped sides but was still, I think going in the wrong direction. Most of the time anyway, but it was getting increasingly random as each time I put the boat down, it seemed to move so that I'd pick it up a different way. 

 

So I started at one end and did a whole side from there. 

 

 

Unfortunately, when the 'left hand' timberheads ran out, there was still a gap on the boat. 

 

I was beyond worrying at this point because It occured to me that it really didn't matter about any of the timberheads arriving in their designated spaces, apart from the 'H' shaped ones. All the rest would be close enough. So I just wellied them all in and clipped and sanded any that stuck up too far. The slight irregularities add character and anyway, that rail in front of them will hide the mess almost completely. 

 

I claim this day as a victory!

Edited June 1, 2022 by Bertie Psmith
I decided that posting a link to a Frankie Howerd video was a bit naff really.

[Bertie McBoatface]

I just posted an update but I put it in last night's post above. It may be because of the new medication I got from the off license today.

[psdavidson]

10 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

It may be because of the new medication I got from the off license today.

Sudden changes in meds can knock you off-balance at the start.

Just keep going, I'm sure it'll do you good in the end 

[Bertie McBoatface]

10 minutes ago, psdavidson said:

Sudden changes in meds can knock you off-balance at the start.

Just keep going, I'm sure it'll do you good in the end 

 

I just can't tell whether you got the joke or not. 😆

[psdavidson]

1 hour ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I just can't tell whether you got the joke or not.

I hope I got it, the key words being "off license" and not "pharmacy"

maybe I should have added a ?

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

1 hour ago, psdavidson said:

I hope I got it, the key words being "off license" and not "pharmacy"

maybe I should have added a ?

 

You are too dry for me. 😃

[Courageous]

Great work Bertie, she is looking beautiful. 

 

Stuart