Duchess of Kingston - Beauty of the Seas - Wooden Sailing Ship 1/64

[belugawhaleman]

Nice work on the planking Rob! I'm enjoying your thread on this build and I admiring

Your work so far.

 

[DocRob]

20 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

There is some this special about wooden ships, splendid work Rob.

 

11 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Looks good, Rob.

Muchas gracias Hombres, it's great fun to work with wood for a change and I can see more wooden ship builds for me, but I will not abandon the plastic. Albeit it felt a bit wrong, to work with CA for the second planking and I think the result is a sufficient base for a beginners job.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

9 hours ago, belugawhaleman said:

Nice work on the planking Rob! I'm enjoying your thread on this build and I admiring

Your work so far.

Thank you and glad to have you on board. I thought about joining Modelshipworld and WIP there, but there are so many build logs even for the DoK, I think to present something different here is not a bad idea.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Respirator mask on, first thing in the morning and using a variety of sanding tools for a coarse (180 grit) preliminary sanding of the hull. The Duchess starts to look like one, slowly. I'm closing to the final appearance of the stern area very slowly, with still some millimeters to sand.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I took the measurement for the waterline from the supplied 1:1 plan, which amounts to 4,7cm plus 1 cm for the stand. I marked that off on a glas plate with my improvised marking tool .
This is preliminary, as I will sand more, but I wanted to get the idea, where the waterline is. Interestingly I measured on the plan from the top of the bulwark on a certain place and found a discrepancy to my marking. Weird, as the measurement from the bottom is correct. I have to determine, where the differences source.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I collected the sanding dust and mixed it with PVA and a drop of water and brushed it onto small gaps and used a sheet of plastic to smooth over. For testing I did that under the waterline, because I want to now, if there are stains after sanding and If I can varnish onto the treated wood without problems.

Small gap

Filled with my self made filler

Brushed on and smoothed out.

Test area for Minwax Wipe on Poly.

Lets wait and see.

Cheers Rob

[Bomber_County]

Congrats Rob, loving this build but as some others have you are a very brave man. Looking forward to the next stage and all of her finery……

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Congrats Rob, loving this build but as some others have you are a very brave man. Looking forward to the next stage and all of her finery……

Thank you Phil, no bravery involved, just a good sense for exploring new grounds. The kit is so well designed, that it's the perfect canvas to have an interesting build and hopefully a nice result, even as a relative novice. 

Cheers Rob

[GazzaS]

Starting to have some great lines, Rob!   Very smooth!

[DocRob]

11 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Starting to have some great lines, Rob!   Very smooth!

Thank you, the Duchess of Kingston should look like a beautiful shaped Yacht in the end, a very elegant and decorated small shiüp.

Cheers Rob 

[DocRob]

Regarding to Phil, I have to correct myself. Sometimes a little bravery is needed with DoK. Today I applied my self made filler generously by brush onto the hull, where gaps were visible. I hope this sands away like I had it planned when dry.
I had a tiny drawback yesterday, sanding the connection between the pre fabricated bulwark and the first plank. from above, there was always a little step to be seen, so I sanded a bit more without success. Later, I looked a bit closer and found that the first plank came loose somehow at this place and therefore bulged a bit. I sanded it paper thin by accident, not seeing this in time. I applied a tiny bit of PVA with a thin CA applicator and hope the prob is solved. Check thoroughly if something unexpected happens was the lesson to learn with this.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

A mock up pic, after removing the spar ends and sand them flat at deck level. I inserted the decks and the inner bulwarks, to see if everything fits. Afterwards, I soaked the bulwarks in hot water and clamped them into the their place to let them dry overnight.
The aft deck needed to make an additional rectangular hole for the steering wheel post, which is marked, but not cut like the others.

The sanded hull now looks like this, after some time with 320 grit sand paper. After a final fine sanding, it will be varnished with WOP, along with the bulwarks and decks.

The stern area was finally sanded to shape and I have to say, I like the result of this very delicately shaped area, where thinned planks meet the bended and glued in place stern fairings. I also sanded the stern end of the side fairings to fit, ready to accept the stern plate with windows and ornaments later

Cheers Rob

[Martinnfb]

This build is utterly fascinating due to its artistic element. Aesthetically very pleasing shape, plus there is something special about the woodwork itself. I am enjoying your work a lot Rob.

Cheers

Martin

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, Martinnfb said:

This build is utterly fascinating due to its artistic element. Aesthetically very pleasing shape, plus there is something special about the woodwork itself. I am enjoying your work a lot Rob.

Thank you Martin, I'm overwhelmed. You are absolutely right about the shape of ships of this age, it's a sensual fun to work on the hull. Working with wood is a pleasure and quite different from our normally used materials. To work for a good wood finish is not so much harder than to finish let's say a plane, but entirely different in approach.
It's well worth trying a wooden ship model, given there is some love for the subject. I guess, I'm not lost to the Tamiya Extra Thin sniffers, but my venture into wood modelling will not be the last.

Cheers Rob

[GazzaS]

That stern came together nicely, Rob.  I look forward to seeing your 'ornaments'.

[DocRob]

On 4/11/2022 at 8:56 AM, GazzaS said:

That stern came together nicely, Rob.  I look forward to seeing your 'ornaments'.

Thanks Gary, it was a pretty delicate affair, to get first the fairings aligned and then a proper lay of the planks with sanding everything to contour at the stern. I already prepared the stern cabin window peace, as I want to now before, how this will fit.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Yesterday, I decided, my selfmade filler wasn't good enough, so I slapped on some Ronseal wood filler below the waterline to make her ugly again.

This was then sanded smooth with 320 grit. After cleaning of the dust with a vacuum cleaner, I used a damp cloth to have it properly clean for the white paint.

Above the waterline, I added decks and bulwarks. The decks needed a slight bit of sanding, but better too large than too small. I very carefully sanded the surface of the decks with 320 grit sandpaper, to get rid off the laser marks. As I didn't want to loose engraved detail, I stopped in the middle, having reached a manageable compromise.

The pre-formed inner bulwarks where glued in place and clamped thoroughly to allow a good bond. As an aligning help, there are oval wooden plugs supplied for the cannon ports. That helped, but as it was not too easy to fiddle these in, I managed to break the inner bulwark on one port, while doing so. With a careful applied drop of CA, this was repaired.

Gluing the bulwarks, I added the PVA glue with a brush and used a bit more near the deck, as I did with the deck itself. By clamping the bulwarks and weighing the deck down, I achieved a bond there, without stains, which made the bulwark more rigid. It was a bit flexible before, when I roughly handled the hull, while sanding.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

As Im preparing the first coat of Wipe on Poly, for protection against color bleeding in the next steps, I sanded the bulwarks upper sides level and used tiny files of different shapes to smooth the gunports, upper bulwark ornaments and worked on the openings for the catheads.

Then I applied a first coat of Minwax Wipe on Poly with a cloth. It's gloss varnish, but with a very thin coat there is no gloss, luckily. The first plank under the bulwarks show some discoloration and I don't know why. All was sanded, and there was no filler or other stuff used, nor were there residues of CA left. Maybe it's the wood itself, but I haven't noticed before. Tomorrow after drying, I will decide, If I sand again, or if I will leave it as is.

The wood got a nice and rich color with the WoP on and the deck looks better too. Slightly irritating is the color discrepancy between the pre fab bulwarks and the planks, which both are made from pear wood. I may give the lighter parts another swipe and with all the color and decoration, it will look good, hopefully.

Right in time, I got some urgently needed supplies today. I plan to use flat Tamiya LP colors, white, blue and red and have to try which gold color is usable for spraying and brush painting. Chris recommends Vallejo Liquid Gold colors. I heard, they are not easy to work with but have a nice shine. The brushes are synthetic, which is also  recommended for the Vallejo colors. On the right is the formidable Colle 21 CA, which worked very good for my second planking job.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I couldn't leave the first planks as they were and started careful sanding in the morning, after I checked the thickness of the plank with a sharp blade pushed between two planks in these spots. There is always the risk of sanding through the planks and that would be horror.

Now I'm satisfied with the planks above the waterline and rubbed on another coat of Wipe on Poly and a layer extra for the lighter bulwarks.

I feel, that the progress over the next steps will be slow, as there is bending varnishing and painting involved, each needing time to dry. I try to be organized through these steps, but first, I wanted to make a color check. I used six different colors onto varnished planks and bulwark material, as it would be on the hull, except, that I didn't sand the test parts to a perfect surface.
Both pictures show the same, except for the planks which are painted on both sides with different colors. At least on wood I'm not amazed by the Tamiya LP-colors, which are very translucent, besides the red. I will use Tamiya's XF range. The blue and red will be brush painted, the white for under the waterline will be airbrushed.

Planks with XF-colors

 

Planks with LP-colors.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

First color is on and I like the result. I used Tesa and Tamiya Kabuki, which adhered not very good onto the varnish, but good enough, that I ended up without color bleeding. I used Tamiya XF-flat blue and the color looks good to my eye. I brush painted two coats with a wide brush and the color dried absolutely flat and even.

Cheers Rob

[Bill_S]

Fantastic work, Rob! This is way outside of my comfort zone.

[belugawhaleman]

Looks great Rob!

[GazzaS]

Whoa!  Definitely looking awesome, Rob!  I'm getting lost in all of this nautical jargon, though.  Bulwarks?  Catsheads? 

In the US Marines, we played the nautical game, too...  even thousands of miles from water.  The floor is the "deck", and the wall, a "bulkhead".  The ceiling was an "overhead", and the stairs, a ladder.

And heaven help you if your gear was "adrift".

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, Bill_S said:

Fantastic work, Rob! This is way outside of my comfort zone.

Thank you Bill, not into my comfort zone either, but I learn a lot and I have more fun, than with some plastic builds. Wood is very interesting to work with, especially if it's well selected wood for the case. Another reason for building wooden ships in my case is, this could possibly be the first model displayed in the living area with the approval of my wife.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

15 hours ago, belugawhaleman said:

Looks great Rob!

Thanks a lot, she starts to look like a yacht for a Duchess.

Cheers Rob