Jase's American Gunboat Arrow

[Jase]

Hello all, this is my first build diary on this forum i thought I would open shop with a wooden ship build by Amati (I will be launching a stunning plastic kit build very soon too so keep your eyes out). The kit does not look to challenging, as the hull planking is simple and uninterrupted, but I think the model will look rather cool when done.










The Kit has a lot of parts all of the usual Amati quality. wood is good quality and the hull is double planked. a particularly nice touch is the addition of the launch slip as a display stand.






Construction starts with construction of a jig that allows the drilling of two 5mm holes at an angle for the two masts.










Next step is to remove and clean all the ribs. this Kit does not use the more usual method of slotting ribs into a real that is common in more modern kits, so there is a lot of marking up to do to ensure positioning is correct to the plans.






Jase

 

[takeslousyphotos]

I gotta watch this one

 

[Fenlander]

Only ever built one wooden ship, a Billings Crab Fishing Boat. I have to say that I really enjoyed the build and enjoyed the woodworking but I just wasn't good enough to make a good job of it. Loads of respect for you guys who can build these well.

 

[PaulTRose]

wil be watching this one cos ive always fancied doing a wooden boat like this

 

[Polux]

This one will be a very interesting thread....


As others said, all my respect for you that can build wooden kits

 

[Jase]

Thanks all for the comments. Interested in the 'wood' kit comments. so I will talk through some of the method to prove how easy this can be. usually the problem is people start on a kit thats just to complex and this kit is defiantly ok for beginners with model building experience in other mediums.


Jase

 

[Jase]

Ok so build starts properly with a jig for making the two 5mm holes required for the masts. The masts angle rather than stand straight so the jig is a big help. quite a bit of cross referencing with the plan s was needed as making a mistake now could not be easily rectified, and as only the hull is painted I have to be precise as I cannot use filler.














This wooden button becomes the build base for the hull. Using the plans the cleaned up ribs are carefully glued in place one at a time insuring they are straight. if they are not correct the hull will be misshaped and the whole thing will be wrong. TIP1 if you do happen to glue something incorrectly, wood glue, being PVC based, can be softened and the piece unbounded with the use of heat, steam from a kettle is a good way of doing it. I used the 4mm x 4mm keel strip to ensure everything was totally aligned, this I placed the two end ribs first. The ribs are left to cure overnight.










The bow and stern formers where then added again using the plans as a reference. these incline the deck for and aft as well as form the shape for the hull planking later on.










Once this was all dry the first false decks could be installed. These sit neatly onto of the ribs. next job was then to plank the deck using 1mm x 3mm strip. for speed I have used the full strip length when laying the deck rather than cutting the strip retreat butt joints in the planking, this will be emulated later with a propelling pencil. The side wall is planked first. once done this was scraped following the grain using a razor blade, this removes any excess glue seepage and levels the plank surface. this is followed by a gentle sanding again following the direction of the grain using fine wet and dry. TIP2 don't be tempted to use a corner grade of paper for sanding, you may remove material a lot quicker but the scratch marks left behind can be very difficult to remove and will take you longer to rectify than spending more time with a finer grade.


















exactly the same process was used for the deck planking laid to the length given in the plans.










all comments thoughts and feedback greatly appreciated


Jase