This model is a bit different from most of the other models I have built in that it is a port side, or left facing model. The picture above shows the laminated backplane sitting on the mahogant mounting board. Over the next few days I will finish drawing and fairing the lines. Once the lines are done I will start planking the hull.
I finished the drawings this morning before I went for my last sail of the season. When I got home from sailing and stripping the sails from my Allied 36, I cut out the frames and glued them to the model's backplane. Tomorrow I will build the cambered deck and start planking.
Today I built the cambered deck and planked the model down to the waterline. Tomorrow, after my boat is hauled out for the season, I will start planking below the waterline. I am using 1/16" thick by 3/16" wide balsa for the planking. Once the planking is finished I will fiberglass the hull and deck.
As you can see I have now finished planking the hull. I still have some shaping to do on the leading edge of the keel. I will do that tomorrow and then I will fiberglass the hull. Once the hull is glassed, I will fill and fair it before preliminary painting and building the cockpit and cabin house.
I have now finished fiberglassing the model. The rudder shows the color of the wood before the glass was applied. The mounting board now has two coats of varnish on the front and back. I normally put seven coats of varnish on the front and four on the back, so I still have a bit of varnishing to do. The next step is to fill the weave of the glass cloth with fairing compound and fair the hull until it is ready to paint. That will take 4-5 days. Once that is finished, I will build the cockpit and cabin house.
Today I finished filling, fairing and priming the hull. I am sure you will notice that the rudder is white. That is because I didn't fiberglass it. Instead I faced it with 1/64th inch thick styrene sheet. I have also not yet cut out the prop aperture. That will happen in a day or two. Tomorrow, Nov. 6, I will start working on the cockpit, deck and cabin house. Once I finish building those things I will paint the model.
I have now built the main cabin and cockpit and primer painted the model. Tomorrow I will build the hatch base and the sbase of the companionway slide and storm hood. As soon as I finish those parts of the cabin top, I will start painting the model. That process usually takes 6-7 days since I have to let the paint cure between coats of different color. The next picture shows a plan view of the deck.
This picture shows the deck and cockpit. You can see the cockpit hand anchor hatches as well as the inset for the inner jib sheet track.
I have now painted the topsides and the deck gloss white. The next step is to let the paint cure for a day or two, then I will paint the burgundy boot stripe and the tan non-skid on the deck. The model is sitting on the mahogany mounting board, which now has five coats of varnish. I have about two coats of varnish to go on the board.
While I am waiting for the paint to cure between coats I have been working on details like the winch above. It is just under 1/2" high. I machined it from 316 stainless steel.
Over the last few days I have painted the burgundy boot stripe onto the model.
I have also painted the non-skid areas on the deck. Despite an almost perfect match between the deck color and the color card for the paint, the paint came out darker than expected.
I laso put the name and hail graphics onto the stern. Note the light gray shadow effect on the name. The next step is to start installing wood and other details on the topsides deck and cabin house.
Unfortunately the previous picture showed that the transom shape was not quite right. Consequently I cut the transom off and rebuilt the last several inches of the hull to accomodate a revised transom shape. This is the first of several iterations in which I added wood to the hull then sanded it back until the transom was right.
Here I have fiberglassed the rebuilt aft part of the hull and am well into the fairing process. I have also sanded the topsides and a bit of the bottom fair in preparation for priming. Tonight I will prime the hull to identify imperfections. I will then fill those flaws and reprime the hull. I will repeat the prime/fill processuntil the hull is fair and has no flaws.
The model has been faired and primer painted and is now ready for painting. Since today is Thanksgiving and I do the cooking, I doubt that I will paint the topsides until tomorrow.
After many coats, I finally achieved a good result on the paint job. As you can see in the picture above, I have started putting the teak on the model. In addition to the toe and rub rails, the companionway trim and drop boards are also in place. Today I will put most of the remaining wood on, but then the wood work will slow down a bit since I will be fitting pieces to the newly installed wood and have to put the finish on the cut surfaces before I install those pieces of wood. Incidentally, this is the first model I have built where the teak is finished in Cetol.
I have now put the cockpit coaming and eyebrow on the model. In addition, I put the name and hail graphics on the stern and put the cove stripe on. Today I finished varnishing the mounting board and put the final coat of Cetol on the rest of the teak. I also built the winch base. In addition I cut out the prop aperture in the keel and rudder. Tomorrow I plan to build the companionway slide and storm hood and to instal the rest of the teak as well as the engine instrument panel. I will also start making the ports. Once those parts are on the model I will paint the bottom and mount the model before putting the rest of the deck and cabin detail on.
There have now been a few changes. I have finished building the companionway slide and storm hood. I have also installed the mooring cleats, the winch, the ports and the cabin-top hand rail. Although you can't see it here I have also installed the engine control panel in the cockpit. Tomorrow I plan to finish installing bits and pieces in the cockpit. When that is done I will mode on to the cabin top and then the rest of the deck. I also decided to put another coat of varnish on the mounting board today, so I won't be bottom painting and mounting the model for a few days yet.
I was feeling a bit under the weather this weekend, so all I did was to paint the bottom. Tomorrow I will mount the model on the mounting board and then start working on details again.
This model is now finished. You can see the Bruce anchor on the roller and the prop in the aperture. The next picture shows the cockpit detail.
Here you can see the cockpit detail including the tiller, instruments, andersen 28ST winch, aft cleat, rub strake, aft chock, cowl vent and the aft end of the genoa track. I will post better pictures taken in natural light tomorrow.
