My work on the Cutty Sark, a 1:96 revell plastic kit, is very close to being completed. I've done the standing rigging and am about to put on her sails and rig them. during the beginning stages of the rigging, I knew I would have to stop periodically to allow what I had done to dry. so, I filled the gaps with tinkering with the Nordkap, in order to familiarize myself with the kit itself. I have never done a wood kit and the whole concept seemed intriguing to me. I had seen these kits in stores.......I used to think....naw, their a little over my head.....but here I am, with one sitting in my dinning room. looking over the frame work and ribs, I saw that one thing i had to do was stabilize the frame work. the wood is so dry from it's exile to the attic, that I was concerned that it may break, should i handle it the wrong way. as i read through the instruction sheet, I saw the combination of the deck beams and joices, that make up the rest of the frame work. do that and then cement in the deck halves, and that may stabilize it to the point that it may even prevent it from warpage. I first sanded and fitted all the deck beams into place.
once all 12 of the beams were in place, I started to fit the joices into place. there are the two stern joices, which also double as ribs {the two sets of notches, you see in the picture above}. then, there are two that run the length of the ship, stopping at the fourth rib, where a singular joice extends in the center, to the bow stem.
the next thing to do was to finish cutting out the deck halves and fit the notches to the ribs. the idea is to use the deck halves as a template, holding the joices in place, but cement them in so not to cement the deck halves as well.
I took off the deck template to reveal the joices in place. I added more cement to finish the job. while this was drying, I turned my attention to a few details that I had found out. one of the bow rabbits was broken, as well as one of the caprails that run along each side of the ship. I had to repair them. I took some of the spent wood from the cut outs and cemented them onto the broken ends. I would then clean up their opposite piece and finish the repaired pieces, using them as a template. I also found that a couple of other parts were missing, the bow caps and the stern rabbits. the bow caps were easy, I just waited till I cemented the bow rabbits in place and make the caps with simple flat stock. the stern rabbits however, took a bit more to do. I used the stern stem as a template.....a four inch by two inch piece of flat stock, in which I traced the stern onto it. I cut it out, check fitting it as I went. it was supposed to have an elongation on it for the keel rabbit, but I chose to eliminate it, since I used two strips of planking for the keel rabbit. after I had the stern rabbit to shape, I made it's duplicate and finished their shape after I cemented them onto the stern.
once the deck joices were dry, the task of sanding the area flat was in order. when this was done, I had made sure to leave a bow, cresting at the center of the deck. this is normal for most ship, as it allows for water run off. when all this was smooth, the deck was cemented into place.
when it was used as a template, I did not cut out these cutouts for the deck. now that it is to be cemented in, I finished cutting them out. the little pieces that came from the cargo holds were used to reinforce the areas around the cargo holds and the mast hole in order to make these areas stronger. the deck did shrink a little, causing a small gap in the center. this will not be seen at the bow or the stern, so this will not be a huge problem. I did have to break free the first rib and move it so the deck would fit.....again, not a big problem. I also plan on planking the deck, so none of this will be seen. once the deck was dry, I added the stern cap and started the long sanding process. the ribs had to be contoured so that the planks would sit flat on them and the ribs are flush to the deck.the next step was to install the rabbits.
these are the reinforcements that I spoke of. I also want to create a sort mast pot in this area as well. it will serve as a more secure way to cement in the mast. older kits are pretty cool, in the respect that during the build, you can study and see potential improvements that can be made. as with any kit, extra detail in the right areas can really make your build come alive and lend functionality to whatever area you embellish on.
