Day 185.

I’m over 180 days, or about 6 months into the Model Shipways Bluenose kit build, so it seemed like a good time to review where I’m at.  A while back, I did some planning and put together a spreadsheet of the various steps.  As I’ve worked, I’ve continually updated that, marking things done, adding additional things, and reordering things.

There have been a number of things that I originally had listed as a single step that I’ve now broken out into multiple steps.  Sometimes this was because having one step over simplified things.  Sometimes it was done because I decided to tackle different parts of a given step at a different times.  For example, I originally had one item for ‘rudder’.  I’ve since broken that into two parts: the rudder, and the pintles and gudgeons.

I also used this opportunity to adjust my plan for the next few stages.

So, to review the first 6 months, let’s look at things I’ve completed, things I’m working on now, and things I’ve still got to do.

Completed Steps

I have managed to get quite a bit done in the first six months.  Some people would go faster, others would go slower.  Overall, I’m fairly happy with my progress.  Taking a look at the individual stages…

Stage 1 – Framing

#	Step	Completed	Days
1	Keel	4/4/16	3
2	Rabbet	4/7/16	3
3	Sternpost	4/8/16	1
4	Taper stem	4/8/16
5	Trim bulkhead extensions	4/9/16	1
6	Bulkhead installation	4/11/16	2
7	Bulkhead supports	4/15/16	4
8	Fair the hull	4/16/16	1
9	Horn timbers	4/16/16
10	Stern blocks	4/17/16	1

 

The first stage was the build out the keel and bulkheads, and get the general ‘backbone’ of the ship build.  This went fairly quickly, and this part took only a couple weeks.

The biggest mistake I made during this stage was with the bulkhead supports.  When I installed those, it caused the keel to bend, which required some time to fix.

Another issue, which I didn’t noticed until later, was that when I shaped the stern blocks, I should have paid more attention to the size and shape of the stern.  I didn’t round mine off enough, and as a result, the caps for the main rail didn’t fit.

Stage 2 – Lower Planking

#	Step	Completed	Days
11	Great beam	4/17/16
12	Waterway	4/23/16	6
13	Plank hull	5/10/16	17
14	Sand / fill hull	5/15/16	5

 

My ‘lower planking’ stage included getting the great beam and waterways installed, as well as planking the hull below the deck.

This part took about 4 weeks.

This was my first time planking a hull, and I’m fairly happy with the results.  In hindsight, I should have been better about fairing the hull (I had a number of places where planks didn’t lay correctly).  I should have used less wood filler when I was done.

Stage 3 – Upper Planking

#	Step	Completed	Days
15	Mast slots	5/15/16	1
16	Transom framing	5/15/16
17	Transom tumble	5/16/16	1
18	Knightheads / hawse timbers	5/18/16	2
19	Cable chafe block	5/20/16	2
20	Clean up stanchions	5/21/16	1
21	Scruppers	5/22/16	1
22	Plank bulwarks	5/25/16	3
23	Plank transom	5/26/16	1

 

Upper planking involved getting the planking above the deck installed.  Before I could do that, I had to finish out a number of different things.

This stage went pretty quickly – a little under two weeks.  I didn’t really encounter any problems with this, although I should have caught the problems with the shape of the stern during the point.

Stage 4 – Deck Planking

#	Step	Completed	Days
24	Plank fore deck	6/1/16	6
25	Plank quarter deck	6/18/16	17
26	Stanchions	6/19/16	1

 

Planking the deck took a little over 3 weeks.  Some work into creating a clear plan for the plank layout before any deck planks were placed.  The fore deck went a lot faster than the quarter deck, as the quarter deck requires tapering planks.  This stage was pretty smooth, with no major problems.

Stage 5 – Hull Preparation

#	Step	Completed	Days
27	Transom fashion piece	Omitted	0
29	Hawse pipe holes	6/20/16	1
28	Mooring Chocks	6/25/16	5
29	Waist cove	Omitted	0
30	Mount the hull (holes)	6/25/16	1

 

My ‘hull preparation’ stage was a grab-bag of miscellaneous things that needed to be done before I could paint the hull.  These were pretty easy, although I skipped the two harder steps.

I decided to leave out the transom fashion pieces.  From the plans, it wasn’t 100% clear how those went on.  I’ve figured it out since then after seeing photos of the original ship, but at this point I think I’ll just leave them off.

I also skipped over making the waist cove an actual groove.  The plans call for a very small groove along the waist in the bulwark planking.  I tried to add this groove as I was doing the planking, but it was so small that it disappeared as I sanded the planking after install.  I wasn’t confident in my ability to do it by hand, so I left it off.

Stage 6 – Painting

#	Step	Completed	Days
31	Primer hull	7/2/16	7
32	Paint waterways	7/3/16	1
33	Paint bulwarks	7/4/16	1
34	Paint hull	8/7/16	34
35	Bulwark / waterway touchups	8/12/16	5
36	Stain deck	8/13/16	1
37	Mooring chock plates	8/15/16	2
38	Waterline / cove touchups	9/1/16	17

 

Here we are – the stage that felt like it took forever.  Painting the hull took me 68 days, nearly 40% of the time so far.  Painting really, really shouldn’t take that long.  Most people finish this in a couple days.

What went wrong?

The main reason for the stall was simply logistical.  I paint with an airbrush, and I only use the airbrush in the garage.  The ship is too big to fit on my normal painting bench, so I have to set up a small workbench in the middle of the garage.  This means I could only paint after moving the cars.  My wife and I both work all day, and it was hard to get time in to move the cars and paint after a long day at work.   This meant that painting was mostly confined to weekends, and there are only so many coats you can get on in a weekend when you allow for drying time and sanding.

So, that wasn’t really a problem, it was just how the timing worked out.

However, I did have all kinds of problems with getting the waterline painted.  I tried to follow an approach I’d seen others use, and it didn’t turn out well.  My water line didn’t have a clean edge, and it was a little wavy.  So I ended up spending a good chunk of time (over 2 weeks) trying to fix that.  The lesson?  Don’t follow my original plan for painting.

Stage 7 – Rails

#	Step	Completed	Days
39	Bowsprit hole	8/27/16	1
40	Main rail	9/4/16	3
41	Aft buffer platform legs	9/7/16	3
42	Buffalo rail	9/16/16	9
43	Monkey board and rail	9/25/16	9

 

Doing the rails took longer than it should have.  A big reason for this was that I had to remake the end pieces for all the various rail sections instead of using the kit provided pieces.  The main rail’s bow and stern pieces didn’t fit.  The buffalo rail’s end piece got over-sanded.  The monkey rail’s stern pieces didn’t fit, and broke anyway.

During this stage I also made a bad decision about paint color, which is now slowing me down again (and throwing me back into painting hell).

When I started planning for this build, I purchased a practicum (course) for this kit.  I haven’t really been following it (as you can see by this plan), but some elements of that course have stuck in my head.

In the practicum, the instructor paints the main rail black.  As a result, almost everyone following that practicum also paints the main rail black.  It looks nice, and that’s what I did.

However, if you look at the plans, or look at any photos of the actual ship, you’ll see that the main rail was definitely white.

I should have went with white when I built the rails.  Instead I painted them black, and now I’m working on stripping and repainting them.  Would have been way easier to get it right the first time.

Current Steps

Six months in, I’m still not to the point of building deck furniture, masts or rigging.  Recently I’ve been working on various smaller details.  After all the time spent on painting and rails, where things moved slowly, this next stage has been fun so far.

Things are moving faster, and there are a larger number of small projects to work on.  The pace is picking up, and when I hit a stall on one thing, there is something else for me work on the meantime.

Stage 8 – Hull Details

#	Step	Completed	Days
44	Rudder	9/26/16	2
45	Hawse pipe lips	9/29/16	1
46	Bow star
47	Scroll work
49	Seal hull paint
48	Pintles and gudgeons
50	Name plate – rear
51	Name plates – bow

 

I’ve started in on the rudder, which has turned out well.  I hit a snag on the pintles and gudgeons.  My test run, which included my first ever attempt at soldering, went great, but I wasn’t happy with the alignment of the holes in the brass strips.  I had drilled those by hand, and wasn’t able to get them aligned well.

To resolve that, I’ve put the pintles and gudgeons on hold until my new drill press and compound X/Y table arrive.  That setup should allow me to position the holes more accurately.

While I wait for that, I’ve gotten the hawse pipe lips installed, and I’ve started working on a method to get the name plates made and installed.

While looking at photos of the actual ship to finalize the name plates, I decided that I needed to correct the main rail paint color as I mentioned earlier.  So this stage includes a few days of work to strip the paint off the rails and repaint them white.

Once that is done, I’ll finish up those name plates.  I’ll also seal the hull with some clear coat, and build those pintles and gudgeons.

Future Steps

Then what?  My plan for the remainder of the build is a little more loose.  I recently made some big changes to the next few stages, and I’ll probably make many more changes as things progress.

The remainder of the plan should be taken with a grain of salt.  Especially the stages on rigging, which are lacking in any detail.  When I get closer to those stages, I’ll itemize out the individual lines that need to be run, blocks, deadeyes, etc.  For now, that work is so far off that I’ll just leave it as ‘rigging’.

The biggest change to the next few stages involved re-working my plan to tackle the deck furniture.  I had originally planned to do all the structures on the aft deck followed by all the structures on the fore deck – two stages of work.

However, at some point I need to seal the deck with some clear coat.  Once I do that, wood glue won’t work on the deck anymore.  I’d really like to use wood glue for the main deck structures (hatch, companionway, etc).  So, I’ve decided to build all the bigger wooden structures in one stage, mount them, then seal the deck.

Once that is complete, I’ll work on the aft deck’s remaining stuff followed by the fore deck.  Many of those pieces are metal, and I’d be using CA glue anyway, so those should be fine to install after sealing the deck.

Stage 9 – Deck Structures

#	Step	Completed	Days
52	Cabin
53	Steering wheel box
54	Aft hatch
55	Companionway
56	Skylight
57	Fore hatch
58	Unidentified object
59	Seal deck
60	Mount structures

 

In this stage, I’ll build and mount all the various larger deck structures.  Many of these are detailed, so I expect this to take some time.

Stage 10 – Aft Deck

#	Step	Completed	Days
61	Battons
62	Fife rail
63	Mast coat
64	Main boom crutch
65	Fore boom crutch
66	Crutch pad
67	Quarter bitts
68	Bilge pumps
69	Stern chocks
70	Main / fore boom sheet buffers

 

This stage will finish out the quarter deck with the remaining structures and pieces.  There are number of things to build and install, but they are all fairly simple.  This should go fairly quickly, with lots of progress, but the number of items to install may make this take some time.

Stage 11 – Fore Deck

#	Step	Completed	Days
72	Galley stack
73	Dories
74	Achnor pads
75	Catheads
76	Bow chocks
77	Mast coat
78	Downhaul fairlead
79	Anchors
80	Jumbo jib sheet traveler horse

 

Similar to the aft deck, the fore deck has a number of things that need to be built and installed.  Most of these should go quickly, but the dories will likely take some time.  The dories are the small fishing boats, and there are four of them that need to be built.  Making these is a very specific side-project – as you’re basically building 4 additional small boats.

Stage 12 – Machinery

#	Step	Completed	Days
81	Countershaft assembly
82	Windlass
83	Hoisting machinery
84	Jumbo jib boom crutch
85	Engine box
86	Samson post
87	Bowsprit bitts

 

I broke out machinery as a separate stage, rather than including it in the fore deck work.  This was done mostly to keep the scope of each stage contained.  The work involved for the machinery is different from the other structures as it uses lots of cast metal pieces.  There will be a lot of detailed work here to get things cleaned up and looking good.

Stage 13 – Rigging Prep

#	Step	Completed	Days
88	Eybolts / rings / cleats
71	Chain plates

 

To finish up work on the deck, there are a ton of tiny details.  I’ve simplified them here into just a couple steps, but there is a lot going on here.  There are dozens of belaying pins and eyebolts to install.  Chainplates have be made and installed.

Stage 14 – Masts

#	Step	Completed	Days
89	Main mast
90	Main top mast
91	Fore mast
92	Fore top mast

 

I’ve given the masts their own stage.  Each of the Bluenose’s two masts is made up of multiple parts.  Each mast has a number of bands, hardware, and structures involved.  These are built off the ship and not installed until they are complete.

Stage 15 – Booms and Gaffs

#	Step	Completed	Days
93	Fore boom
94	Jumbo jib boom
95	Main boom
96	Main gaff
97	Fore gaff

 

The various booms and gaffs are like mini-masts.  There are a number of these, and like the masts they will be built off the ship and set aside until they are needed during rigging.

Stage 16 – Bowsprit

#	Step	Completed	Days
98	Bowsprit
99	Bowsprit rigging

 

The bowsprit will likely get moved up the plan at a later date.  It can’t be fully rigged until the masts and such are installed, but the bowsprit itself is nice little project that starts to make the ship ‘pop’.  I might build and install that after machinery, and before the masts.

Stage 17 – Rigging

#	Step	Completed	Days
100	General rigging
101	Standing rigging
102	Running rigging

 

Finally, there is rigging.  Obviously I’ve grossly over-simplified rigging here.  Rigging will take quite a while, especially if I stick to doing it ‘correctly’ and don’t take shortcuts.  I would expect that by the time I’m doing rigging, this stage is broken out into 3-5 different stages, each with a dozen or so steps.

By this time, I’ll also have to decide if I’m going to install the sails or not.  Cloth sails are one of the things that I liked about this model, but the instructions and practicum don’t cover it in detail.  As I get closer, I’ll have to research what’s involved with sails, and make a decision on what to do.  The rigging is done a little differently if you’re doing sails than if you’re not adding them.