I changed the name of the blog today, from Modelling Dilettante to Ship Modelling Dilettante. Just wanted to save people from disappointment if they followed the link expecting to see real live female type models. Not gonna happen here, sorry.

Weekend work:

Not an awful lot of work got done this weekend. Here's a summary:

On Blue Toon: I did some more work, lofting the frames. No sense it posting a picture of that as you'd never be able to spot the difference from last time;

On Bluenose: On this project that my wife will start, I've traced the bulkheads onto some 3mm plywood. The real Bluenose has something like 68 frames. This model has about a dozen bulkheads. I'm thankful for that;

On RCNS Whistler: I don't know where Traplet got the RCNS bit. It should be HMCS, and since it's a Restigouche-class model, we've decided that it will be re-named HMCS Terra Nova, since that ship has a history here, and I've seen it myself here in Halifax. This is a very simple off-scale model with a flat-bottomed hull and very little topside detail. Yesterday, I cut out the bulkheads (five of them) and the transom, as I don't want my son using the razor saw and X-Acto knife. Then, I cut some 1/4" strips out of a piece of 1/4" sheet balsa, to be used as stringers. We'll begin construction after work/school today, and this time he'll be doing all the work. Pictures when we've made some progress;

Another of my kids has a model of a Viking boat that he got for Christmas, and when he saw me working with his brother on the Terra Nova, he suddenly decided the Viking boat needs to be built right now, and asked me to help. The wood for this boat is absolutely horrible, so a good deal of labour was expended for little progress, but I'll post a picture of it later on;

On everything else, I got nothing done.

Oh, and on Sunday afternoon I was asked "Dad, when are you going to build the N-scale train set for us?"

The fun never ends.

So, now I've got even more projects on the go.

A bit over 20 years ago, my wife (this was long before we met) decided she wanted to build a model of the Bluenose. She bought herself a kit, built the hull, then Real Life interrupted and the model got set aside. I recently mentioned to my modelling friend John that this Bluenose hull was sitting around in my basement, and he asked me to bring it over. This afternoon, I dropped by John's house with the whole family in tow so John could look at the hull. Long story short, the hull is shot. It's been sitting for so long that the planks on the hull - which weren't properly fastened because the hull wasn't finished - have come loose, and repair is too difficult. John's advise was to start anew, so to that end, he gave us some templates to use to make new frames and a keel. My wife has said she'd be interested in building the model, but not alone. She wants me to help.

Also, my youngest son, who is 8, said he'd like to help build the model, but shortly afterwards said he'd like to work on something easier first. So, I went through my stock of plans at home and found the plans for RNCS Whistler, a semi-scale Restigouche-class destroyer model from Traplet. Info can be seen here:

http://www.trapletshop.com/gb/p/12247/rcns-whistler

Before supper today, I ran down to my local hobby shop and bought a good supply of balsa to start building the Whistler, which we'll start in a couple days after I have a chance to copy the plans so we can cut out the frame patterns.

So in addition to all the kits I have on the go myself, I now have two more to help with. Great fun, but I have to wonder if I'm ever going to get anything finished.

Some progress this weekend. In spite of being busy with hockey and such, I managed to find some time to work on both Blue Toon and Jane Burnyeat. No pictures of the latter, as all I did this weekend was work on building frames, but here's a picture of how Blue Toon looks now, and the latest picture of the MTB, with  deck attached.

Well, it's a case of the best laid plans, and all that, eh? I got home from work late, just in time for supper, then I had to run an errand, and then it was dark and so much for sitting out on the porch in the sunshine, sanding the hull of the MTB. That picture will wait for another day.

But, here is the latest picture of the Blue Toon. 

Okay, got some good work done on Blue Toon last night, and remembered to take a picture. I'll post later when I get home.

It's a beautiful sunny day here today, and I have nothing important to do after work. So, I think I'll sit out on the front porch and do some sanding on the MTB to get the hull nice and smooth. I'll post a picture of that later on as well.

Not much activity here of late, sorry. I have been doing some model work, just not posting about it. Here's what's happened in the last week:

St. Roch - okay, I fucked up on this one. While working on the port side of the hull, I had the keel piece pinned to a workboard, then added the deck pieces, setting them down to the level of the board. This left a slight gap between deck and bulwarks, and when I sanded the edge of the bulwarks down to the edge of the deck, I had to pretty much sand the bulwarks away completely. This left nothing as a gluing surface for part 18, which glues to the outer edge of the bulwarks. So, the port side came off the board, the starboard side went on, and I used the bulkhead halves from the starboard side to help me make up some strips to add to the messed up port side bulkhead halves. I'll take these strips, use them to rebuild the sanded-away bulwarks, then hopefully I'll be back in business and can finish the port side. In the meantime, the starboard side is on the building board.

MTB - the hull is finished, other than to sand down some filler I put in a few spaces that were a bit uneven. Though I thought earlier that I wouldn't add the deck til all the RC guts were in place, I changed my mind after dry-fitting the deck. It seems to leave plenty of space to fit my hands in the hull to do the work, so the deck got put in place. Also, the two slots for the prop shafts have been cut in the hull.

Jane Burnyeat - I've started building two more frames. Once they have cured for a week or so, I'll cut them to shape and start making more frames. Need to get this done, as some of the cutting work involves the use of my friend John's scroll saw, which I have borrowed and need to get back to him soon.

Blue Toon - all frames are in place, as is the stern. Tonight I will be at John's, and we will be working on strengthening all the spots where frames meet the keel. I think the first hull plank will be added next week.

I'll try to take pictures of all these in the next couple days and will post them.

By the way, I think I'm doing this largely for myself, so I'll have a record of what I've done and when. That being said, I see I've had some visitors over the last few weeks, mainly from Canada, Alaska, and Germany. Whoever you are, thanks for dropping by what I admit is a rather boring blog.

Ah, yes, one more thing. I did find a very useful reference for the St. Roch build, namely a blog done by someone who was building the exact same kit as I'm building. It's http://buildingthestroch.blogspot.ca/ for those of you who may wish to go and have a look. I'll be reading the posts and downloading pictures and hints as I got along, in the hopes that I may avoid any pitfalls that caused that builder problems.

April 5, TGIF. It was a busy week with work and sports, with a meeting of my ship modelling guild thrown in for good measure, but I still found one evening to go to John's house to work on Blue Toon. In this last session, we started placing blocks of wood in the spaces above the frames, where the frames had been set into the keel. We also got the transom installed, after I finished building it at home earlier in the week. Sorry, forgot to take pictures, but I'll try to remember when I'm over there next week.

In MTB news, the hull is finished other than some minor touch-up work. Once I do that, I'll cut the slots for the prop shafts, then post some more pictures.

And just tonight I did a bit more work on the St. Roch. I had hoped to perhaps use the kit as a guide for a scratch build, but I haven't a hope in hell of managing that in time for September. Not with all the other stuff I have to do. So, the hull at least will be built according to the kit directions. Again, pictures on that later.

I do plan on trying to do more work on the MTB this weekend, and on St. Roch, and on Jane Burnyeat, but my wife is working this weekend, and the huge SEDMHA tournament is happening here in town, plus one of my kids is playing in it, so this weekend will be a blur of hockey and tae kwon do classes and playdate requests and making meals and taking care of kids and dogs, and trying to squeeze in a bit of model building. Wish me luck.

Not much done on the model making front today, as fatherly duties occupied much of my time. It being Easter Monday, the kids are still off school, and my #2 son had hockey evaluations to attend, today being the start of the process to see what level of hockey he'll play next year.

I did manage a couple things though. As I mentioned earlier, I have frame #10 of Blue Toon to work on, and need to put on the transom which then needs to be sanded to shape. I put the transom on today, in the form of a 1/16" thick basswood sheet, topped with a 1/4" layer of balsa. The basswood provides the strength, and the balsa is there because it's easy to sand to the proper shape.

Also, I was asked if I could build my kit of the RCMP St. Roch, so it could be shown in an event in September. I've never shown a model before, so this is a bit daunting, but I'll give it a shot. I've also never had to work to a deadline before, and given my attention span problems, this will prove to be a challenge, but again, I'll give it a shot. Of course, this means that I have yet another partly built model on the list, which makes eight, I think. Sigh.

This is the Billing kit, which is in their Advanced Beginner line of kits. Here it is on the Billing site:

The hull of this kit is made differently than what I'm used to, in that the 'keel' is a large sheet that takes up the entire height of the hull from keel to deck. It's built with a 'keel' half to which one adds half bulkheads. Build, repeat, then stick the two halves together. Here's the port half with all the bulkheads in place and the first piece of decking added at the bow. 

Hmm, what else? One of the other builds I work on from time to time is a Thames workboat called Jane Burnyeat. I bought the plans from Traplet Publications, from whom I have bought a number of plans. You can see details about it here: http://www.trapletshop.com/gb/p/12297/jane-burnyeat

To date, all I have done on the Jane Burnyeat is the keel and a couple frames, and even the keel isn't finished. Today, I chiseled out a 1/4" wide groove in the bottom of the keel into which I slotted a 1/4" wide piece of brass rod, which extends to the end of the skeg and is intended to provide it with more strength than the wood alone can provide. I then sanded the keel down from 3/4" thick, to about 3/8" or 7/16", give or take. The next step with this will be to chisel out the rabbet line. I'll post a picture of that another day.

Being a beginner-level model shipwright, I am working on Blue Toon with my friend John, who is an excellent modeller with more years of experience than I have years of life behind me. He is my teacher and mentor, and is guiding me through the build of Blue Toon. In order to reinforce his teaching lessons, I started the build of Jane Burnyeat at home on my own. I'm hoping I can achieve a decent level of success with it.