Nineteenth Century New Bedford Whaleboat - Amati - 1/16 - Build Stalled Indefinitely

[Maddoxx77]

This is shurely one of the most interesting buildlogs i've read in a while. By that i mean that what i'm seeing and reading here is so far from what i do with modeling and that makes it as if i'm looking through a spyglass ( see what i did there? ) to a whole new world were kits consists of living things that have to be bent, talked, pursuaded in to shapes.

For me this is a form of craftsmanship rather then modeling. 

Also the fact that the log is sprinkeled with parts from books about whaling, beautifull detail drawings of boats and parts, exiting stories etc. 

It is a craft i can only admire, the building and writing alike.

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

4 hours ago, Maddoxx77 said:

This is shurely one of the most interesting buildlogs i've read in a while. By that i mean that what i'm seeing and reading here is so far from what i do with modeling and that makes it as if i'm looking through a spyglass ( see what i did there? ) to a whole new world were kits consists of living things that have to be bent, talked, pursuaded in to shapes.

For me this is a form of craftsmanship rather then modeling. 

Also the fact that the log is sprinkeled with parts from books about whaling, beautifull detail drawings of boats and parts, exiting stories etc. 

It is a craft i can only admire, the building and writing alike.

 

 

Thank you so much for that review, Maddox. It makes me very happy that you are enjoying the boat and the thread. 😊

 

I'm finding building in wood, and leather and brass and string and cloth too, unbelievably satisfying. I'm still a fan of plastic kits, as you know, but the fact that I'm new to wooden kits, makes me appreciate them more. 

 

I don't know what I'm doing half of the time and that's great because I was so jaded with plastic aircraft after making hundreds, perhaps thousands of them. I switched to AFV's and made myself a bit of a newbie there but it's not too much of a leap from plastic planes to plastic tanks and I soon found my feet in the heavy metal world of armour.

 

Then, when I started the boats last year I was totally innocent. I hadn't a clue. It's the necessary learning and the difficulty that makes it so worthwhile to me. I'm just hoping that I'll live long enough to be able to do it properly! 😆

 

As for the thread, it's modelled on the novel Moby Dick which is half story and half documentary about real life whaling in the nineteenth century. My 'story' is the building of my boat (and I don't know yet whether it's a comedy, a drama or a tragedy). The documentary part is the book extracts and so on.

 

It's going to run and run because nothing in this genre is quick so don't forget to drop in again from time to time.

 

Again, thanks for the encouragement from someone whose own modelling, and storytelling I have so much respect for.

 

[Faraway]

3 minutes ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

the novel Moby Dick

Have you read the account that MB id based on, absolutely fascinating.

Jon

[Bertie McBoatface]

Just now, Faraway said:

Have you read the account that MB id based on, absolutely fascinating.

Jon

 

I've read a little of the sinking of the Essex but not enough yet. 

 

I'm currently enjoying Moby Dick all over again, assisted by the excellent Cliff's Notes on the book. It's the first time I've used a study guide when I wasn't formally studying and I must say, it's well worth it. My copy of MD cost a pound and the study notes were six or seven times that! 😁

[Bertie McBoatface]

Have you ever read Moby Dick? The whalermen rarely refer to their prey as whales, but call them 'fish'. I used to think this was ignorance but today I learned that 'whale' is a taboo word aboard ships and if spoken is thought to bring bad luck. I learned that from one of the books that came in the post today, In Search of Moby Dick by Tim Severin.

 

Intrigued by the novel, Severin visits the Pacific to find out how much of the book is true. He follows in Melville's tracks, comparing real locations with the fictionalised versions. Most interestingly he spent time with the people who still hunt whales from open boats, sometimes with harpoons and sometimes with a hook and line. He includes a photograph of a fisherman taking a ten ton, not whale, but whale-shark on a hook. 

 

As the whale shark is a harmless plankton feeder, it's nothing like as dramatic as it appears at first sight, but even so, it's a hell of a way to make a living as well as the only way to make a living on Pamilacan Island. There are also brave men who harpoon sperm whales from open boats but I'll post about those another time.

 

As for Bertie's Boats Incorporated, today we managed a little more planking. I'm really not in the mood due to being bunged up with a cold, but the idea of the Hobby Streak which must be continued is slowly moving the build along. It doesn't feel like I'm turning my hobby into a job, it just gets me off my donkey/horse hybrid and up to the desk. Once I get there, the wood draws me into action and I work happily for an hour so or until the nose starts to drip onto the model.

 

[TonyOD]

What @Maddoxx77 said. This is art.

[danbuoy]

Well, this thread just gets more and more interesting. It's a great example of a subject that is mostly outside my main spheres of interest (but not entirely), a kit that is certainly not the sort of thing I'd ever buy myself, but a build I keep returning to read about and catch up on. In other words, classic group build material!

[Bertie McBoatface]

1 minute ago, danbuoy said:

certainly not the sort of thing I'd ever buy myself

 

That's what I used to say. Then I happened on this thread here on Britmodeller. 

 

 

Take a bow @Dubz. My inspiration.

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

I say this in every WIP at some point, "half of the job consists of finding effective ways to hold the workpiece". It's so true. If you insist on holding it in one hand and working on it with the other, you've wasted a hand, doubled the effort and probably made your work inaccurate to boot.

 

I'm just planking today. It's going really well and I'm starting to look forward to the next stage which will be building the boat's ribs onto the inner planks. I might get started on that next week.

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

I've been walking my planks all day.

 

At bow and stern, I'm running out of room. The red line marks what's still available of the stem to tack the planking to. Something less than 1cm.

 

Amidships, around the curve of the frame, the gap to fill to the red line I marked on the frame is a little over 2cm. Reducing the width of the planks by 50% at the ends won't be enough. I'll run out of stem before I fill in the midships. It's not a big deal really, as you will see later on in the build the inner planking stops well short of the top so I have a lot of flexibility in the number of planks I must use. However, I want the top pf the inner planking to be parallel to the top of the bulwarks. 

 

I have a feeling that's as clear as mud but it's the best writing I can manage right now. 😁 The point is that I need to plank out the belly a bit while not using any of the space at the two ends. I have to fit a stealer. A stealer is a short plank that doesn't go to the end of the boat. It fattens the belly and brings the run of the planking back into line..

 

Three more normally tapered planks per side ought to finish this part of the build and then I'll be framing. That should make some nice pictures. 😁

 

[TonyOD]

Well it looks like a boat, alright. Splendid progress compadre.

[Bertie McBoatface]

I say, I say, I say! How do you find out how heavy a whale is?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You take it to a whale weigh station of course! Ha! Ha! Ha! Boom-boom! 

[heloman1]

Looking good Bertie. I've only ever built balsa aeroplanes, never a boat. I'm intrigued. Whaling must have been a very dangerous occupation!

 

Colin

[Bertie McBoatface]

I've been thinking about something I read in Moby Dick recently. I think it relates to modeling.

 

Ishmael the narrator is describing a night spent sharing a bed with Queequeg the harpooner, whilst journeying to their ship.

 

We felt very nice and snug, the more so since it was so chilly seeing there was no fire in the room. The more so, I say, because truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable anymore. But if like Queequeg and me in the bed, the tip of your nose or the crown of your head be slightly chilled. Why then indeed, in the general consciousness, you feel most delightfully and unmistakably warm.

 

It was the sentence that I have rendered in bold that caught my eye. Until a year ago I made airplane models. I have made airplane models since I was about 8 years old. I flatter myself that I'm quite good at it. I was very comfortable with airplane models. I had been comfortable with airplane models for a long time.

 

And suddenly I realized that they were boring me stupid. Switching to armor and then to the crazy world of wooden boats made me very uncomfortable.

 

I still am uncomfortable even with a fairly simple project like this whale boat. I am uncomfortable because I don't know how to do things. 😱 But when I find, or even better, work out solutions for myself. I am delighted, completely filled with joy. I enjoy modeling again with the same intensity that I felt when I was eight years old.

 

I had to be a bit rubbish in order to properly appreciate any successful parts of my modelling. 

 

Thanks to @Faraway, It seems that the next discomfortable thing for me to try will be minute resin iron ships crawling with microscopic PE. I'm looking forward to it, honest. 😳

[heloman1]

On 1/9/2023 at 2:59 PM, Bertie McBoatface said:

Ahoy shipmates. I've set my first plank of the day into place. Since there's a lot of interest in the wooden boat building and @Enzo the Magnificent for one, is going to be planking a hull for the very first time, here's a post describing how I do it. (Other methods are available)

 

This planking is destined to be the inner surface of the bottom of my boat. It will be obscured by thwarts, oars, tubs, lines, reinforced flooring at bow and stern and a 'shelf' at each end too. I estimate that no more that 50% of it will be visible, and that will mostly be amidships. With this in mind, and because it's a time limited project, I'm not aiming for 100% perfect. This is a 60% job, so I'm not taking my usual care especially at the ends. Think of it like the interior of a tank that you will be building with the hatched buttoned up. It's worth doing but not worth doing too well.

 

 

First catch your rabbit. I select a plank that's either straight or even better, curves gently in a suitable direction. I like them to curve away from the keel amidships so than when I force it into place in the middle, the ends will naturally lie close to the preceding plank. I mark a 'centreline' next to the fattest frame with an arrow pointing to the bulwarks. Sometimes it helps to also indicate which end goes towards the bow and whether it's starboard or larboard. You'll be surprised how easy it is to shape a plank to fit perfectly on one side of the boat and then stick it badly to the wrong side up side down, or back to front.

 

 

Looking at the frames I see that their outside lengths taper in a curve towards the ends of the boat. The planks must do the same.

 

 

I mark with four lines the places where I'll start the taper. Theoretically it starts at the fattest frame but the taper in the middle of this boat is so minor that I'm leaving that parallel planked. (60% effort)

 

 

I trim the excess length, leaving half an inch for safety. The longer the plank you have to taper, the more likely you are to bust it by catching it on a sleeve or the workbench.

 

 

Most on-line tutorials tell you to join your 'start of taper' point to the desired width point on the end of the plank with a straight edge and then cut with a craft knife. I find that leaves me with a corner which tends to lead to a kink in the laid plank. The geometry of the thing calls for a curve. To get this, I use another plank on top of the one I'm preparing and pull it into a curve between those two points. Then I pencil in the line.

 

I'm taking half of the width off the planks at the ends as discussed a few posts back.

 

 

There's my curved cut line with the waste hatched in so I don't remove the wrong side. Or at least so I don't often remove the wrong side.😜

 

There are many ways to cut to a curve like that. I prefer to use a plane if the wood grain is reasonably straight and the plank is strong enough and wide enough. For tangled grain, weak planks and tiny tiny boats, I use a miniature sanding disc in a Proxxon or a Dremel. (Dremels are good on wood because unlike plastic, it don't melt!). For @Enzo the Magnificent's cheap Chinese rip off pirate ship with its awful wood, and tiny planks, I'd sand it carefully with a sanding stick.

 

 

I made this plank vice from gash wood in about half an hour. Holding the workpiece properly is half of the job. You certainly can't use a plane without one, though a sander doesn't need this level of 'sophistication'. 😆 I made a better one with bought in wood and special ironmongery after my first boat. It took ages to make and cost a fortune. It's not as good to use as this one though. Sigh!

 

 

It's called a David plane. The blade is replaceable so no sharpening is needed, thank goodness. It looks a bit cheap and nasty but it's actually very efficient.

 

 

I judge a plane by it's shavings and there's nothing amiss with those.

 

While planing the taper, I'll also plane a bevel on the edge where the contour of the frame is severe enough to warrant it. Otherwise you'll have it only meeting the adjacent planks at the corners, leaving unsightly gaps.

 

 

So I've chosen a plank with a suitable sideways bend (or bent one with a steam iron if necessary). I've tapered, and bevelled it. The one thing remaining in the spiling process is to twist the ends to lie comfortably against the hull profile. If the wood is stiff, I'd be using a hot bender (Oh Matron!) but this Amati beechwoof is almost as flexible as plastic card so I'm just twisting it in my hands to about 45 degrees, the clamps will do the rest.

 

I tach the plank with CA at the 'centreline' mark and clamp it into place. Then I gently ease it away at the next frame and flow some glue in there, clamping and moving right to the ends. 

 

 

The final twist is provided by good old fashioned clothes pegs, doubled for extra squeeze. These rubber faced ones are excellent.

 

 

The planks are only tacked at the frame points. That's the frames of the jig remember, so they won't be providing any support once the jig is removed. I run thin CA into the joints between the frames and clamp them level. I'll be sanding it all smooth later but I'm hoping that this will minimise any ugly steps between the planks. 

 

I did one plank for the photo shoot which took about 15 minutes including photography. Then I spent over an hour trying to describe it to you. 😁 Don't be discouraged from trying a wooden boat, once you have the hang of it, the processes are all doable and much easier to do than to write instructions for.

 

Maybe that's why ship instructions are always so pants-like. Amati had this to say on the subject, "Apply planking ensuring right tapering."  😆

 

Please feel free to ask questions either now or when you start your own wooden boat. And any advice that you can offer me will be carefully considered too. I'm still a newb at this.

 

And then you went and laid the plane on the blade! Shame on you, I think you would have been evicted from the woodwork shop for that!

 

Colin

[Bertie McBoatface]

6 minutes ago, heloman1 said:

Looking good Bertie. I've only ever built balsa aeroplanes, never a boat. I'm intrigued. Whaling must have been a very dangerous occupation!

 

Colin

 

I'd be fascinated to know what the casualty rates were if anyone has any figures. Just going to sea in the says of sail was horribly hazardous. It's not by accident that our stereotypical picture of an ancient mariner is usually lacking a hand, a leg, and not just from the fighting. People were crushed by falling spars, brained by swinging blocks. They fell from heights to the decks, or into the sea (and most could not swim). They died by the dozen from scurvy, gaol fever and all of the usual poxes and agues. And even into Nelson Haley's day, the mid-nineteenth century, they had to be careful to avoid south sea island cannibals! 

 

Then add in the dangers of taking 'big fish' on thin lines from small boats, which included becoming separated from their mother ships and dying of thirst as well as whale attacks and simple drowning. Yet the whalers didn't need a press gang. Seamen volunteered for their four or five year 'fishing trips' despite the uncertainty of the rewards. My reading hasn't yet explained why that was so. 

[Faraway]

28 minutes ago, heloman1 said:

And then you went and laid the plane on the blade!

Maybe the blade is withdrawn ?

Jon

[Faraway]

28 minutes ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

Thanks to @Faraway, It seems that the next discomfortable thing for me to try will be minute resin iron ships crawling with microscopic PE. I'm looking forward to it, honest. 😳

Sorry about that. Well not really.

I feel decidedly uncomfortable with the thought of continuing with HMS Alert, and I ALWAYS have slight misgivings when I’m working on any ship, whether it be plastic, resin, 3D or whatever it’s made from. 
I question whether I follow the instructions, or go off on my own route ?

What to paint next ?

What to FIT next ?

Sometimes I even talk myself out of doing anything, which I hate as I don’t believe in giving up without trying.

Jon

[Bertie McBoatface]

50 minutes ago, heloman1 said:

And then you went and laid the plane on the blade! Shame on you, I think you would have been evicted from the woodwork shop for that!

 

Colin

 

22 minutes ago, Faraway said:

Maybe the blade is withdrawn ?

Jon

 

Shame on me!

[Bertie McBoatface]

26 minutes ago, Faraway said:

Sorry about that. Well not really.

I feel decidedly uncomfortable with the thought of continuing with HMS Alert, and I ALWAYS have slight misgivings when I’m working on any ship, whether it be plastic, resin, 3D or whatever it’s made from. 
I question whether I follow the instructions, or go off on my own route ?

What to paint next ?

What to FIT next ?

Sometimes I even talk myself out of doing anything, which I hate as I don’t believe in giving up without trying.

Jon

 

Lay a plank. Go online. Lay a plank. Go online.

 

I've been thinking about this comfortable discomfort stuff all morning as I work. Much of any modelling is fairly routine so my mind wanders. 

 

I do like a little excitement. Only a little though - I'm not going to take up mountain biking or anything like that. 

 

Excitement. What is that? It's surely a heightened emotional response to a situation, but which emotions? Mountain biking is exciting I believe because it's frightening. Not knowing how this boat goes together is a bit frightening too - I might lose all and be embarrassed here. Getting it very wrong would be uncomfortably sad? The risk of that is excitingly scary. Getting it right would be a relief and that's a strong emotion. Getting mountain biking right is a relief too because you aren't going to die! This is just brainstorming. I don't really have it clear in my mind yet. That's a tiny bit exciting too. Aha! Doing WIPs raises the excitement because I can't hide when I screw up. 

 

It's much easier to define what drove me away from yet another aircraft. Boredom. Monotony. Knowing even before I opened the box that the only problem would be me losing the will to finish it. Of course I exaggerate. There is always something tricky in a kit, some new wrinkle to iron out. And fashions change so there's often a new technique to learn. I guess that's why there are fashions in modelling - it keeps it interesting. 

 

Plenty to think about anyway.

 

The glue's dry now so it's time for another plank. Or maybe a cuppa and yet another biscuit. 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

I did a plank. It's all gone a bit nasty to be honest. Photos later today. It seems that there's no place for being casual anywhere in this wood boat business.

 

Now for that cuppa.

[ColonelKrypton]

5 hours ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable anymore.

 

What for is the purpose of a challenge if not to find an answer? That in itself is enough reward for the pursuit. Embrace the journey, reach for the brass ring just beyond your grasp. Never give up, never surrender.

 

cheers, Graham

 

[ColonelKrypton]

4 hours ago, Faraway said:

Sometimes I even talk myself out of doing anything, which I hate as I don’t believe in giving up without trying.

 

Analysis paralysis. I have to keep kicking myself in an effort to keep me from over thinking too many things.

 

In part of which, as enjoyable as just trying to keep up with follow the wonderous day of the Salty Sea Dogs, enough analysis - time to put on my coat, grab a shovel, and clean up some of the wonderous white stuff from winters latest Nor'easter.

 

cheers, Graham

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

5 minutes ago, ColonelKrypton said:

Analysis paralysis

 

The Paralysis of Analysis has an evil twin called the Attraction of Action where we don't think enough but just act, possibly because the thinking got too hard. Actually they are both evil twins as it's hard to say which one kills most projects.

[Bertie McBoatface]

Good grief, I have pontificated here today, writing much and saying little. Let me now make up for that by showing you some photos to prove that I did some modelmaking too.

 

The first plank that I tried to lay this morning refused to go all the way to the bow. I didn't take a picture because I was so puzzled. After some consideration I realised that this boat which I have been thinking of as symmetrical stem and stern, is nothing of the kind; the bow is more pointed and rises much more than the stern - it has more sheer. The double ended stealer of last night worked at the back end to level out the line of the planks, as we saw in the last update's 'triumphant' photo, taken from the stern.   At the bow, unnoticed by me, there was a definite kink where the stealer had helped a bit but not gone far enough.

 

[As I try to write this stuff down, I come to doubt myself. My problem is that through inexperience, overconfidence, laziness and lack of geometrical intelligence, I do not yet understand the geometry of the curved surface, especially the complex curves of a boat's hull. I think this is a dark corner of maths only really known to cartographers, naval architects and the better class of tattooist.]

 

What an unholy mess the bow turned into all of a sudden. It's not much like the plan. 😲 However, it will do the job, I think, and I actually like the exaggerated sheer. 

 

Tomorrow I have to do the same on the other side and then add one more plank on top and the job's a good acceptable 'un!