Hull glue is dry, now I’ll be sanding, filing and filling the copper plates to reshape and taper on the bow and stern. You can’t see the keel, but I’ll still sand and fill with putty, it’s the neatness in me.
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Coming along nicely. The copper sheathing looks great!
Gary
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Got the hull seam filed and filled, dry fitted the rudder to see about fit issues, had to trim the stern post down a bit. the tape is used so the filler won’t get on the remaining copper plate. once the putty dries, I’ll refile the plate edges a bit (even though you won’t see 90% of it.
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I’ve been working on the whaleboats, all the live long day… parts prep and painting, life of a modeler.
The main color of the boats will be white, the upper seats and frames, I’m still researching what color did the Wanderer may have used. Not a whole lot written on these. Each boat is numbered with the matching seats frames, why I don’t know because they are all the same shape. Two of the boats will be stowed upside down amidship on the racks, the rest will be outboard on the rails ready to launch. The oars will be white.
The sail for each boat is Testors flat sand which will be washed with a slight darker shade to shadow and detail. The rope line for each will be painted armor sand.
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Removing the injection punch marks on the whaleboat sail and benches, the micro sander really comes in handy, I’m using 180 grit paper, I’ve only used it once before, works well. After the sails were retouched up, someone reminded me of what it looked like with the clip…
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That little micro sander looks pretty effective. Keep us posted on what you think as you use it more. I’ve been tempted by one, but I’m also a little suspicious. 
I’d be interested to hear how useful it turns out to be over time.
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One tip I’ve learned is you scrape or remove the extra material as must as possible with your hobby knife (use some different ex-acto blades to get in to tight spaces) before sanding, make the pad last longer.
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On all copper cad sailing ships, the copper corrodes naturally due to the saltwater environment, the effect that is use on plastic model is one I’ve used for over 30 years.
Base coat Floquil Copper, then brushing down from the water line I paint over the copper with a #2 watercolor brush using Floquil Antique White, then while the white is still wet, I brush over the same areas with Floquil Lt. Green, then brush over that with distilled turpentine, this blends the colors and once dry it will lose the sheen. I’ll seal with Acrylic Future floor wax to seal it.
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Working on the sails and harpoons. Sails got a washdown with off yellow water base this will be followed with a light grey then a dry brush of white to 'bleach the sails while leaving shadows. After the seams were removed the wood of the harpoons is military brown and will be dry brushed with armor sand and the metal with be black.
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It’s almost a shame to cover up that beautiful copper! It does make me wonder how long the real thing actually stayed looking that pristine before the water started doing exactly what you’re recreating here.
Excellent job on the weathering. I’m learning a lot following this build. It seems like every one of your updates teaches me something new about boats and how they were built and maintained.
The marine growth and corrosion happened almost immediately, the long over 1-2 years of the whale trade almost all of the ships had to have the bottoms scraped after the multi years voyages.
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Saw an interesting Youtube short on this. They disliked the corrosion of the copper, so they tried attaching zinc sacificial anodes to the sheeting, which stopped the corrosion but allowed marine growth to attach to the hulls again. It was the corrosion of the copper sheeting that killed marine growth. Live and learn.
Gary
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Yep, the Cutty Sark had a cladding called Muntz Metal, this worked better than pure copper and was a little lighting based on 1 sq. foot at the same thickness. I’m not sure of the cost difference. AS you may know the Cutty was the first true composite ship - iron framing, wood sheathing and protective cladding. She’s in a very unique display; I’ll go see her one day.
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Finished off the stern woodgrain detail, she’ll also have her name and city on the stern, so it will be even better, I added diluted white glue to the skylight, once it dries it will look like glass windowpanes. . First deck fittings in place, belaying racks will get fitted tomorrow and the top rail will be repainted in black.
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In test fitting the aft cabin I discovered that the instructions as written with the part numbers are backward. What the clue was is the position of the windows and door frames. If you look at the doors, the cross braced are in two different locations (higher than others), so I had to switch sides on the parts. Door framing is lower and some higher. The bow foredeck and windlass are in and detailed. When possible, I try to attach the eyelets to the pulleys without tying, neater that way. The pulleys/blocks that came in the kit (white ones) are near identical to the Revell Models versions, so I use those as they give me more choices and style. I’ll use the plastic deadeyes and chainplates but will hand rig the shrouds as the preformed plastic ones are WAY out of scale.
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The group may enjoy this shop clip of the POB. Her sail plan is just ART.
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The instruction are really messed up, the aft cabin numbers are incorrect (flipped), this is WHY I’ve learned to pre-test or dry fit parts. Also note the door framing, the cross-brace framing are all molded alike but in having to swap part, it makes the doors look upside down. I wonder who worked on this mold, maybe they were half blind or drunk? The 2 notches at the top from fit the roof panel perfect, you have to swap the two door parts. The colors are striking because of the white-black combo, it will look much better when weathered and dirtied, I have a few seems I need to sand (will use the micro-sander for sure because of the tight spaces) and fill, but this will be a major part to knock out. The mizzen mast goes through the roof panel, and I need to allow for the various rigging lines to pass as well to be secured to the pin rail that circles the lower mast. The instructions cover this but not very well. I’ll need to use a thin piece of styrene to fill the gap on the aft cabin where the roof meets the wall. On the port pin-rail, I’ll have to leave the belaying pin out as the forward davit will set right where a belaying pin was to go.
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Incorrect instructions have been biting me on just about every build this year, especially with decals. In a few cases I didn’t discover the problem until after the decals were permanently down, and there was no saving the day at that point.
So I’ve learned the hard way to check references as much as I can before committing to anything, and to dry-fit absolutely everything.
You’re doing exactly what I wish I had done more consistently. Catching these problems before they become permanent is definitely the better way to go.
Lessons learned department for me.
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