All the trimmings

Fortunately, you can't tell the two bent pieces don't quite intersect under
the bow deck. Note the two slightly off-sync holes drilled yesterday.

What was going to be just a few minutes' work tonight turned into a few hours adding important cosmetic pieces to the ship. In addition to the stern board and a bow deck (two pieces I prepped last weekend), I also installed African walnut waterways on the main deck and quarter deck. (I previously referred to this as the poop deck, but the instructions use the term quarter deck -- and, I'll yield to them.)

The walnut adds a few nice touches. For one, aesthetically, it's nice to have a different hue to give the ship more texture and color. Additionally, these pieces go at the intersection points between different pieces, and they cover up those tiny gaps that really throw off the sense of solidity and scale.

The pieces on the main deck soaked for about an hour to become pliant. Alas, I cut them a little too short; they don't quite stretch the full length of the deck. However, they come about a quarter-inch of connecting at the bow, and the bow deck handily covers that small gap. The quarterdeck pieces were pretty easy, although the two parallel runners required some attentive sanding to get a good fit. The back piece also soaked for a while and needed sanding on just about every face to wedge in. Frankly, I'm not satisfied with the sternmost quarterdeck piece: it doesn't quite sit flush on the deck (which you can see in the picture at right), and the combination of its small size, sanding five of its six faces, and slippery wetness were very frustrating.

My wife said yesterday that Albatros is "starting to look like a boat," and that's certainly true from the deck. However, she's also quick to point out that it'd still sink pretty quickly: no hull, after all. Well, planking the hull is the next step. I'm feeling more confident about it now, having had success with the bulwarks and today's bits of walnut. There's still some plotting and scaling to do, so it might be awhile until I start with the hands-on.

Some of the decals for my next model

Planning further ahead: a few weeks ago, I bought my next model kit. It's about as far from Albatros as possible: it's plastic, a much smaller model (~5 inches) of a much larger vessel, and far removed from Albatros in time and space. Today, I ordered several Testors Model Master paints for the kit. The painting is optional, but I'd like to go back to basics and do right something I skimped when I was a kid -- and, in fact, this is a different iteration of a model I poorly built several times as a youth. It's decal-heavy, and that's something I used to struggle with, too. Might as well see whether I can do both or either right.

Another reason for this difference in the next kit is the expense of doing the wooden ships: easily $75 minimum for a kit, and often twice that or more. Before jumping into my next wooden ship, I need to make sure I get the best one for me and my wallet, and that includes even making sure there's a good spot for it at home. The little plastic fellow, less than $20 (the paint came out more expensive than the kit), will be a nice stopgap while I figure out my next big project -- or perhaps just a side trip in case Albatros drags and I need a distraction. But, even though I'm coming up on a month with Albatros, I'm not feeling even the slightest hint of ennui. I said it before, but always with a hint of wishful thinking behind it, and now I'm saying it with certitude: this was a great, thoughtful gift; I love it.

All wet

Bulwarks attached

The bulwarks are bent and attached. Huzzah!

Bending involves heat and/or water. Some woods -- like the thin renin lining the decks -- don't need any special treatment except for major twists and turns. Some thin woods soak for while -- 20 minutes up to several hours -- and then are fixed in place in a jig or on the ship with pins/clamps until they dry. And a few approaches involve heat. Heating the wood permanently changes its structure, which offers the advantage of it not trying to pull back to its original state.

I tried three methods for bending. The first was to wrap the bulwarks in wet paper towels and microwave them. This didn't do squat. Cross that off the list, at least this time.

Next, I let them soak in a casserole dish for a couple of hours. This definitely got them a bit pliant, but the time was insufficient to get to where I needed them to be. Furthermore, I don't have a jig or other mechanism to keep them in shape while they dry (and, even if they had bent far enough, I was disinclined to let them dry in place).

So, then to turn to the electric plank bender. It worked pretty well. The process was simple: take wet wood, place it in molding block, press down with the bender, and the slight bend in the wood eventually becomes permanent. Very important to keep the wood damp; there are a few spots where I didn't that are now slightly burned.

The hull and bulwarks meet; the plank bender is in the
background in its cradle.

My concern about the different woods warping against each other was justified. Fortunately, a little extra glue -- and the renin's own sponginess -- made this easy to address. In the the photo at right, you can discern some of the warps; all of these were flattened out with some glue and the wood drying overnight. In the background, you can see the plank bender resting on its cradle.

One little bonus: I jumped ahead a few steps and drilled two small holes through which the anchor lines will eventually run. The pin vice and drill bit were surprisingly adept. I suppose the wood isn't all that tough (the thicker wood in this model is plywood), and definitely the weight of the pin vice itself does most of the pushing (kind of like the heft behind a safety razor). I needed a 2mm hole but the largest bit is only 1mm, and I didn't feel like getting out a drill bit from my kit outside -- so, I did the finishing touches with a small, round file.

Drilling holes for the anchor lines

Sunday bonus

Decided to line two more items: the little triangle will go at the bow, parallel to the deck, capping the bulwarks where they connect. The bigger piece goes at the stern, perpendicular to the deck, bridging the back end of the bulwarks.

Curve appeal

Albatros hasn't developed too much the last couple of weeks. This is partly due to ongoing research about some upcoming hull-laying decisions, and also to other real-world distractions. But, last weekend and today, I did some more work.

Compare with the previous post after initial sanding

Last weekend, I sanded down the blocks at the bow. It took awhile to confirm the extent to which they needed to be reduced: the written directions are vague, the photos too small, and online information nonexistent or slow. But, going back to the papers in the box, I found what I needed: a full-size cross-section schematic. There's still some finer detailing to do, plus some more sanding at the rear, but the heavy work is coming to a close.

Today, I started work on one of the bulwarks, i.e. the sides of the boat that extends above the deck. The bulwarks will be the first pieces I bend (I've decided, this time, to start with an overnight soak to make them malleable, at least the first one). Before that happens, though, the inside of both bulwarks need to be lined with renin.

The bulwarks are, for now, flat, but their tops and bottoms are rounded in anticipation of their hull-hugging final curve. The renin, though, is straight; just laying it flat, as I had the deck, would in the end lead to the planks running not-parallel to the ship's long axis. Fortunately, as I mentioned before, the renin is flexible; starting a dollop of glue at the top-left side, I laid a line of renin, gluing and gently bending along the way. It all went pretty well. The very top of the bulwark at the back near the poop deck was the most curved and the renin almost balked -- but, it didn't, and now I have a sense of the material's limits. The pictures below may better illustrate all this.

The straight piece of renin and gridded cutting mat contrast the bulwark's
curves, illustrating the issue at hand. (Yes, the bulwark itself slightly lifts off
the mat -- an artifact, I think, from some test-bending against the hull.)

Lined, but not yet trimmed

Lined, cut, and trimmed

Looks nice, having such parallel lines and proportions, even at such scale

After this, it's time to bend the bulwarks to follow the hull. My plan is to soak them overnight (or throughout the workday -- I'll need to check on this), and then do the bending the next day/that evening. Although I've been told across several media that the glue won't dissolve, I won't believe that until I try it. I'm also anxious about the bulwark and the renin expanding and contracting when wet/drying at different rates, and whether anything will warp. Again, I've read and been told that it'll all wind up fine, but, again, I'll believe it once I have my own first-hand experience.