Freedom Song Boatworks 1/16 Vagabond -- Finished!

[dnl42]

On 1/18/2023 at 9:10 AM, Bertie McBoatface said:

Hmm. Scratch built frames. You tempt me sir, you tempt me!

With apologies to Verdi, l'uomo è mobile! I was looking at that frame and then realized that the deck had been lowered to the point that Japanese capsule hotels had more headroom.  

 

With that, the cabin is off the build and I'm back to solid bulkheads. The card stock ensures the bulkheads remain square while the glue cures overnight.

Next up is fairing the chines and clamps.

 

Thanks for looking.

[Bertie McBoatface]

9 hours ago, dnl42 said:

the cabin is off the build and I'm back to solid bulkheads.

 

I have been around that particular roundabout several times myself. 😁 

[Col.]

On 1/23/2023 at 12:20 AM, dnl42 said:

The card stock ensures the bulkheads remain square while the glue cures overnight.

That's a clever tip  

[dnl42]

On 1/23/2023 at 1:31 AM, Bertie McBoatface said:

I have been around that particular roundabout several times myself. 😁 

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men.

At least I didn't get to grief an’ pain by realizing this before I started laying in a cabin.

 

On 1/25/2023 at 4:04 AM, Col. said:

That's a clever tip  

I'm certain I saw it elsewhere.

 

I actually read the instructions! They wanted the deck on before the chines, which makes sense as the deck can ensure the bulkheads are true. The deck was made up from 2 sheets of 3/32" balsa joined along the centerline. The softer balsa sheet worked well here as the deck's camber and sheer result in compound curves. As I continue to use yellow glue, I used two 1/16 baswood sticks on the deck as a cawl with rubber bands around the keel to hold the deck against the forward-most bulkhead; masking tape was sufficient for the after bulkheads and transom.

 

 

Thanks for watching! 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

2 hours ago, dnl42 said:

 

 

The first and second frames seem wildly out of line in that wide angle shot. For a moment I thought you'd been on the beer! 

 

Always good to see the deck fitted. I don't like that floppy stage at the beginning.

 

[dnl42]

Before I started on the chines, I drew the rabbet line to ensure the chines were correctly placed as well as a centerline along the skeg so it could be shaped.

 

The kit provided 3/32" x 3/16" balsa for the chines. I decided to use 1/16" x 3/16" basswood. Some of the bulkhead notches had to be adjusted to ensure the chines were fair. Like fairing lines on hull drawing, this is best seen by confirmed by sighting forward and aft along the chines.

Once I convinced myself the chines laid fair, I chanfered their forward ends so they met the rabbet line. I glued the chines in pairs, the upper chines first and then the lower chines. I first glued and clamped the chines' forward ends against the skeg and then worked aft, gluing the chines into the notches. Rubber bands worked well to clamp the upper chines but tape was needed for the lower chines. After the 2nd set of chines cured, I used a 4" sanding tee to shape the faces of the chines for the bulkheads and fair them fore and aft.

 

 

 

 

Next up is cutting a hole in the deck for the mast. I'll also add a hole for a mooring bitt as it too would tie into the skeg.

 

Thanks for looking. 

[dnl42]

The Six Ps: Prior Planning Prevents Piddle-poor Performance. 

The kit cockpit was supposed to be built on the bulkhead before attaching the deck. That would have worked well if I had actually read the instructions before charging ahead. I didn't. It wasn't.

 

The cockpit was also supposed to be built from 3/16" balsa--still too soft. I cut the parts out of 1/32" basswood, built the box, enlarged the deck so it would drop in, and then marked the deck level around the cockpit. With the deck sheer (concave) and camber (convex), none of the lines are straight.

 

The cockpit is glued in with the rough hewing

 

And the final shaping. I'll put a brightwork coaming on the deck once it's painted. I'm thinking of covering the deck, cockpit, and cabin top with silkspan to simulate a canvas covering per Monk's plans.

 

 

BTW, today's game will be accompanied by Korean corn cheese, crudite, guacamole, chips, salsa, french onion poutine, and beef shish kebabs! Yummo! 😋

And adult beverages. 

 

[dnl42]

I managed to get one final step done today, the transom is on.

I should have put some tape on the skeg as you can see where I was a tad rambunctious with the sanding tee. 

 

[dnl42]

The hull is planked! 

 

Before I could start with the planking, though, I had to fix some rambunctious sanding where the starboard deck edge had straighter segment between bulkheads instead of a fair curve. To fix this, I added a strip of 3/32" balsa (deck scrap) to the deck edge and did a proper fairing job. It's perhaps 1/32 at the midpoint between bulkheads and sanded away at the bulkheads.

 

The instructions wanted the sheer planks installed first, then the garboard planks. I did them in pairs.

 

The mid planks were last. The starboard side is a relatively good fit.

 

Port side? Not so much.   The large gap is due to the bottom of the sheer plank being too high.  Nothing that can't be fixed with wood filler...

 

 

Thanks for looking! 

 

[Thom216]

Looking good.

[dnl42]

Thanks! I'm quite happy with the way it's going, despite fumbling.

 

I decided to use a basswood strip to fill in the major gap. I took some 3/32 square strip stock and sanded it to a long wedge to fit.

 

A few minutes with a modelling box plane and a sanding tee faired it in.

 

I used Plastic Wood for a filler. The stuff dries quickly so it didn't take long to apply, sand, and re-apply.

 

And here's that finished major gap. The line of the filler's corner shows me that I mispositioned both the sheer and middle planks. Oh well, at least it's fixed now.

 

Next up is the cabin, which will then finish hull construction.

 

 

[dnl42]

The cabin is taking shape.

 

The instructions wanted the cabin sides attached first followed by the forward and aft ends. I decided to install the cabin ends first since then didn't need any bending. I used a flat doubler to align the end end with the bulkhead. I cut 90deg gussets to align the forward end perpendicular to the deck sheer. As the ends were drying, I prepared the cabin sides by cutting them out from 1/16 basswood sheet using the provided templates. I used a rounded-rectangle scribing template to mark the airports, drilled each end with a 1/4" drill on my hand drill press (a.k.a., tapping fixture) and then used flat and round rasps for final shaping. I was able to glue the sides to the ends and deck once the ends were fully dried. In retrospect, I wish I had cut airports into the cabin front.

I hope to get the cabin overhead and companionway done tomorrow. I may not yet glue the overhead on so that I can attach clear plastic for the airports to the inside of the cabin sides until after the hull is painted.

 

Thanks for looking. 

[Alan P]

This is really shaping up well...a lot of work but a different set of skills from the usual plastic wrangling 👍

[Col.]

There's something pleasing and restful about watching a wooden boat take shape, almost as if it's a finished article in its own right at every stage of its construction, although such work is clearly not always so restful for the constructor

[dnl42]

On 2/26/2023 at 12:46 AM, Alan P said:

This is really shaping up well...a lot of work but a different set of skills from the usual plastic wrangling 👍

Thanks! Skills and tools, both different yet similar. But quite a lot of fun.

 

On 2/26/2023 at 1:12 AM, Col. said:

There's something pleasing and restful about watching a wooden boat take shape, almost as if it's a finished article in its own right at every stage of its construction, although such work is clearly not always so restful for the constructor

And pleasing to build! While I've replaced parts in IP and resin kits with scratch-built items, major parts would be much more difficult to fabricate. Since every and any part of this hull could be replaced with another piece of wood, construction is actually relaxing. No matter how badly I mangle a part, I can always make a replacement; there are indeed a number of replaced parts in the scrap pile. 

 

Here are rough parts for the airport. I cut rectanlges from 0.015" clear sheet and then rounded the edges to rough size. The upper-left part is in it's near final size. I'll finish the other three when I install them after the hull is painted.

 

To ease installation of the airports after the full is painted, I built the cabin top separate from the hull. I first cut the forward and aft ends of the cabin top from 1/16 sheet to match the deck camber.

 

The cabin top edging was then built from sheet stock, the cut ends, and strip stock for the sides.

 

I also built and shaped the rudder. The gap between the upper cheeks will capture the tiller.

 

 

[Col.]

On 3/1/2023 at 1:45 AM, dnl42 said:

And pleasing to build! While I've replaced parts in IP and resin kits with scratch-built items, major parts would be much more difficult to fabricate. Since every and any part of this hull could be replaced with another piece of wood, construction is actually relaxing. No matter how badly I mangle a part, I can always make a replacement; there are indeed a number of replaced parts in the scrap pile. 

So long as you're enjoying the process it's all good  

Nice philosophy on the replaceability of all parts to work with as well; that must take away a lot of pressure and stress.

[dnl42]

On 3/2/2023 at 4:35 AM, Col. said:

Nice philosophy on the replaceability of all parts to work with as well; that must take away a lot of pressure and stress.

It does! While you may not be able to see it in the last photo of this post, I narrowed the cabin top to a more snug fit. I cut free the strip wood that formed the cabin edge, sliced a strip off the edge of the cabin top sheet, and glued the edge strip back in place. The modification looks perfect and the cabin top now looks much better.

 

Hull construction is done!

 

The toerail is mounted atop the deck at the edge, flush with the hull. I started work by chamfering an end of 1/16" square basswood strips so that they would lay properly against the stem. Once the ends fit correctly, I glued them, taped them, and then used a small rubber-tipped spring clamp to hold the very tip of the strips against the stems. The clamp is a little too strong, but I was able to catch just the chamfered tips of the strips under the tape. I let the strips stand free of the hull to minimize stress against the glue joint as it dried overnight.

 

Clamping the rest of the toerail was looking to be Real Hard.  Over the course of a couple of days, I eventually figured out something the looked promising. I saw the strips formed the approximately correct shape when I fixed the other end of the strip into position at the stern. I laid some strips of a thick 1"-wide masking tape along the edge so that half an inch remained above the deck, which formed a somewhat stiff barrier to align the toerail to the deck edge. By carefully pressing the toerail down and out to the edge, I was able to get the toerail into the correct position so I could fold the tape over clamp it down fagainst the full hull length.

 

 

I also built a working stand from a piece of 1/4" ply cut to the right slope for the keel bottom and sandwiched it between some 3/8" baswood scraps and then glued on a small MDF base. I have a 1/12 RC lobster boat sitting on a scale boat cradle, but Vagabond seems like it should have a more elegant display stand. Perhaps acrylic rods to hold the forward end of the boat above a dark wood base?

 

I removed the tape and cleaned up the toerail edges once the glue set overnight. Wood putty is still needed to fill some of the gaps, but I'm generally happy with the result.

 

Painting the hull is up next. The kit suggests painting the hull bottom red, for bottom paint. But at 17', this is a trailerable boat so I'm thinking of just painting the hull all white.

 

Thanks for looking, liking, and commenting'! 

[Col.]

Clever work again and yes this one is deserving of an elegant stand to display it.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

17 hours ago, dnl42 said:

I was able to get the toenail into the correct position so I could fold the tape over clamp it down fagainst the full hull length.

Gidday, that was a clever method of getting the toenail (😁) into place. But seriously, I did think it was clever. 👍

 

17 hours ago, dnl42 said:

Hull construction is done!

I always consider this a major milestone in a ship build. I've never done a model like this myself but I think she's coming together beautifully.       Regards, Jeff.

[dnl42]

3 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday, that was a clever method of getting the toenail (😁) into place. But seriously, I did think it was clever. 👍

 I tried to hard to check for those. I was thinking I sholuld use the browser's find function.

[dnl42]

I finished the mast and boom. 

 

The mast masterial was provided as 1/4" x 3/16 spruce while the boom was 3/16" square spruce.  As in the full-size spar construction, the first step was to roughly plane off the corners as shown here for the boom.

 

I then used 180 grit paper on my sanding tee fine shape the spars. The boom was shaped to a constant diameter.

 

The mast transitioned from rectangular at the base to round at the top.

 

Holes were drilled through the tabernacle and the mast base to allow the mast to be lowered. The upper hole is for the pivot pin while the lower hole is for the locking pin

 

I also cut a slot for the mainsail halyard sheave. 

 

I thought I would be able to use a sheave from 1 of those blocks that I bought, but they're too small, so I'll have to make a sheave.

 

Thanks for looking. 

[Bertie McBoatface]

The hull looks fabulous. 

[dnl42]

And here's the tiller, on the rudder. It was cut and shaped from scrap 1/16" basswood per the kit plan; this will be bright.

 

 

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday, a beautiful bit of wood-working. Regards, Jeff.

[Col.]

There's something deeply satisfying about seeing wood worked so well.

 

That's not a euphemism you mucky minded lot!