I Was Wrong, there's Life in the Yards.

Yes, even in mid-Winter we have the intermittent throb of machinery, the clash of clamps and the groaning of woods forced to curvatures beyond their normal bent. There's the smell of glues, of paints and plastics, and the unforgettable smell of wood shavings, saw dust and sanding! There are those amongst us who may yield to some further passion for whom we grant dispensation; anything model-wise (well almost) should be considered an appropriate activity under the duress of Covid 19 and it's variants!

Don's yard has embarked on an ambitious building of the "Cutty Sark", and what a fine ship she is! His images from early in this build have raised comments from several members about other models of sailing ships that they have either just started or expect to re-start construction after being otherwise involved (of course, not delayed because things were becoming too difficult ............ or it was getting boring doing all those ***** fiddly riggings).

Don started work at the beginning of January. The lower part of the hull was pre-painted gold but repainted with copper colour, the rub rails are gold and white, and the waterline white. The deck was painted tan ........ and then grey ........... and then a black wash, and then rubbed until grey and bits of tan showed through. The pin rails were painted white and added to the inside of the hull. Next, the bowsprit was painted white and added to the hull. The forecastle was weathered to match the deck, and pad eyes were added. Further assemblies were then painted and added to the forecastle. The deckhouse assembly was painted and attached to the deck. So far, so good!

And so, while we're on the business of sailing vessels, here's to Edward for sharing an image of the "America Vespucci" that he completed a while back. It's a glorious model and has raised the matter of sail furling. As you can see, this is very well done and other members are interested in the technique. I'm hoping he will provide some more images for a future posting and that he provides us with more information about the furling. I wonder if Ray's 1/200 Heller model of the Royal Louis will incorporate furling. By the way, Edward seems to be a glutton for punishment .......... he has 1/100 Heller model of the Royal Soleil (yet to start).

Joe's been playing truant! Look, he's got this fascination model of a steam paddle boat to finish and what's he doing ......... fiddling with trucks!!!!!!!

Go for it Joe, it looks pretty neat, love those shocks!

..............He got a Tamiya Ford F350 truck since, after a family visit to the Ford assembly plant in Detroit a few years ago to see the F150s being built; Joe's son was "hooked" (and so was Joe). As he says about the model "This one is pretty cool. It is 4 wheel drive with differentials that you can lock. It needs a 3 channel since it has a 3 speed manual transmission. The suspension can be customized a fair bit and it even can by adjusted to a 4 wheel steering mode.

Most importantly....it's MUCH less likely to smash it first time out since it is way slower".

I thought it might be interesting to show more painting and construction of John McK's "Glasgow" diorama (some has been included in previous blogs). The round house and warehouse, and base for the diorama are made from styrene which gives particularly clean lines and edges after cutting. The mechanism for the servo-controlled crane is also shown from above and below.

Mike has started work on a model the U. S. Coast Guard "Sentinel" class of high speed cutter. The lines are particularly sharp and the model could offer some interesting high speed performance (at the pond). However, Mike has decided to complete the boat for display only. Your choice Mike, and I'm sure you'll make a vey fine model. But it would have been really neat to see it doing high speed performance trials! I know, I'm sometimes a bit of a "nutter" for playing with the speedy side of boats.

The Sentinel-class design is from the Netherlands. It is based on the Damen Stan 4708 patrol vessel. The "Bernard C. Webber" (#1101) is the first of 58 planned Sentinel-class cutters which will replace the Island Class patrol boats of the U. S. Coast Guard. The new class is being built at the Bollinger yards in Louisiana. With a LOA of 154 ft, the class will have a top speed in excess of 28 kt. That's impressive performance. (info from Wikipedia),

And now, many thanks to Bob for his build log and the series of images showing construction of his model of a Peterborough canoe. Great Job Bob and an interesting log, many thanks from all of us.

"Good Day All: This will be my build log for scale 16 foot Peterborough high end Champlain canoe. The Peterborough Canoe Co. was a prominent builder in Ontario, Canada, and had numerous models. The "Champlain", high and low end were introduced in 1932. High and low end refers to the height of the canoe stem and stern. The build is at a scale of 1:12 or 1 in. equals 1.33 ft. Since there are no model drawings I had to develop my own. I was able to locate a lines-drawing on the internet and I downloaded it to Acad. After tracing the lines in Acad I was able to develop the moulds. These were then printed and glued to mould stock; in this case 1/8 in. balsa. The model would be made of Basswood and painted.

Back again and beginning the planking: This went without any major issues. However, I did find that the planks wanted to open at the bilge; but I was able to force them closed. I believe the curve of the bilge may have been to sharp for the thickness of plank. Once closed-in, stem and stern were laminated and added to hull. Stem and stern laminates were sanded to blend with planking. Now the hull was removed the hull from the building board. The balsa moulds worked well; they were easily cut and removed. The only issue was that the stem and stern mould were rather fragile. The hull was now given a rough sanding and filler was added, then re-sanded once again in preparation for painting.

I masked the stem and stern and painted the hull deep green. Once dry, I added the outer gunwales. So far so good.

Now for the interior: First. I sanded the interior thoroughly. Glue seepage was a difficult to remove. Next I added a medium stain to the interior; this created a blotched finish due to the glue seepage. What to do now? After some though, I felt that the ribs would hide the worst of the blotching; so "carry on"! The ribs were cut and soaked in warm water prior to installing. They were removed from the water and immediately installed with CA glue. After a dozen or so ribs were installed, I noticed a white residue appearing. I believe this was due to the ribs being very wet and the glue floating on the water until it dried. I added a few more ribs which had been wiped to remove excess water and no longer saw the problem. In future, I will need to come up with a better method of spacing the ribs as visual spacing is not the answer. Also, I'm thinking about a baseboard and mould system where the moulds could the reused.

Fitting out: Templates of cardboard were made for the floor boards, seats, thwarts, and paddles. Floor boards were made of 1/32 x 3/16 in. mahogany and installed in the canoe. The floor boards did a nice job of hiding the white residue (mentioned previously). Next, the seat frames were build and webbing was woven. Seat supports were then installed in the canoe, followed by the seats themselves. Thwarts and paddle templates were traced onto stock, cut out, and finished. The inner gunwales were then applied and the thwarts and decks were installed. There was a final touch up of the green paint and then a clear coat applied. I downloaded a Peterborough Canoe Company logo and created a water slide decal that was applied to the deck.