This build
of Captain Cooks' Endeavour ship in wood looks like it is going to be
one of the hardest builds I have ever done. After having a brief look
at the instructions I had to take a second look to try and work out
what to do. I looked at all the pieces of timber, fabric sails, nails
and other metal pieces and then studied the instructions. I had to
read the first instruction a couple of times before I could
understand where to start.
With this
build being a 1/60 scale the overall length of the ship is going to
be about 700mm long. This is one of the largest builds I have ever
started and one of the most time consuming.
The first
part of the build was to attach the ribs to the false keel, which
sounded easy but took a lot of sanding to get the fit just right. I
was forever test fitting the pieces and sanding a little more to
achieve the perfect fit.
Then came
assembling the lower decks and deck planks. This was a little easier
then the last step but still hard to get the right fit. After this
was done I had to install the main deck and planks. This was
enjoyable as I could see the shape the ship was going to take. When I
had finished assembling the deck planks I sanded them back to achieve
a perfect finish. This wasn't part of the process but I wanted to do
this as I'm a perfectionist and wanted the deck to be as smooth as
possible.
After I
was satisfied with the smoothness of the deck planks I added the deck
side walls. This was also a hard step as they were straight pieces of
timber but needed to be curved in order to satisfy the perfectionist
and have the correct shape of the ship deck. I was forever gluing and
clamping to achieve the correct curvature of the pieces. Without
having a million clamps I could only do one piece at a time and this
step took some time to complete.
Before
I could start the next step I had to sand the ribs to match the
curvature of the boat. This meant sanding the ribs to have a nice
flow towards the bow and to the stern from the middle ribs towards
the bow and stern. I first started with just a file and some
sandpaper but then realised
that my dad had a Dremel type tool that he never used. I borrowed his
tool that had lots of different attachments like sandpaper to metal
engravers. This made sanding different parts a lot easier and quicker
and sped up this process
After the
ribs were correctly angled I then started to install the side planks
to form the hull of the ship. This was a tough and slow process as I
had to use warm water to wet each end of the plank so I could curve
it without breaking them.
It has
been interesting to see the ship take shape and actually see how big
this build is really going to be. I have taken about 3 months so far
and and I'm only on step 10 of the build.
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