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Clermont

Nantucket

Shown above, is the image of the completed kit from Bluejacket's website.

February 8, 2016

Although I haven't built a kit in quite a while, I have been fascinated by the Nantucket for a long time. Earlier in my modeling career, I felt it was likely beyond my skill level (it was). I think I am now up to the task and am very excited about building this model. It arrived this afternoon.

Nantucket kit contents
View larger image

This is quite a daunting kit. There is photo-etched brass that I've never worked with before, lots of pot-metal fittings that will have to be cleaned to remove mold lines (very high-quality castings though), about a million holes to drill, lots of shaping on the carved hull, detailed painting, and precise work at a small scale (1:96). I expect this project will take many months. This is NOT a beginner's kit at all.

February 11, 2016

After a few days of carving and sanding, I have the hull shaped, the portholes drilled, the anchor boss shaped and glued on, and the rudder frame glued on. One might think, looking at the large image, that some of the portholes are slightly out of alignment, but they are placed according to the plan. Next step is to attach the keel and part of the stem, then I can move on to the deck and bulwarks.

Sanded Hull
Sanded Hull
Bulwarks
Bulwarks

February 18, 2016

Keel has been added. Bulwarks are sanded down to proper thinness and the braces at the bow have been added. Picture above.

February 28, 2016

It was a bit of a struggle getting to this point. I had done all the painting of the bulwarks and deck and then decided I just wasn't happy with the deck. It wasn't as smooth as I wanted it to be. I tried various methods to correct it, but in the end, I wound up cutting off the bulwarks so I could sand the deck smooth. Rebuilding the bulwarks was a bit of a challenge, but they came out OK in the end and the deck looks much better now. Next step is to add the cap rails and a few more bits and pieces to the outside of the hull (rub rails and such) and then I can paint the outside.

Painted Deck
Painted Deck
Cap Rails
Cap Rails

March 3, 2016

I've made and installed the cap rails plus two rub rails on the outside of the hull.

March 10, 2016

The hull is now painted. I have started work on the pilot house.

Painted Hull
Painted Hull

March 14, 2016

I ran into an issue with the pilot house today. If you are building this model (or plan to) you need to be aware of this problem. There is an etched-brass part meant to simulate a grating that goes on the pilot house roof. This part is about 1/4" wider than the roof if the roof is cut according to the plans! See this picture:

Etched-brass Grating
Etched-brass Grating
Cut-down Grating
Cut-down Grating

I had already made the pilot house and roof before I even looked at the grating. One assumes the parts will match the plans. Wrong. I contacted BJ and they suggested making the roof larger, but that would have made a very large overhang. So, after thinking about it for a while, I decided to cut 1/4" out of the middle of the brass part to make it fit the roof. That all seemed fine and I was proceeding happily until this morning when I started thinking about the etched-brass rail that goes around the pilot house roof. Guess what? It is designed to fit the larger grating. It is all one piece, so it can't be cut down to size. As well, the location of the hand rails from the forward house to the pilot house would be in the wrong place with the cut-down part.

So - Bluejacket kindly offered to send me a new brass sheet with all the etched parts at no charge. Very kind of them indeed. I admit I'm at fault for not thinking about the railing having to match the size of the grating. On the other hand, it would be nice if the parts matched the plans. So if you build this kit - make the pilot house and roof to fit the grating!

Another problem cropped up while I was building the pilot house. The kit supplies brass airports. The instructions say to drill 1/4" holes for these airports. It turns out, the diameter of the airports is actually 1/64" wider than 1/4" (that is 17/64). I had drilled the holes using a 1/4" end mill in my vertical mill and that created true 1/4" holes. The airports would not fit in those holes, so each had to be enlarged. However, the worse problem is that the airports have a wide lip on them that makes the total outside diameter about 9/32" When the holes are drilled in the pilot house according to locations on the plans, the airports are so close together, they actually overlap as shown in the picture at left below.

Original Pilot House
Original Pilot House
Second Pilot House
Second Pilot House

It was clear I had to re-make the pilot house so I decided that instead of using the brass airports, I would use 1/4" styrene rod to line the holes. That actually looks more like the portholes on the real ship. Unfortunately, once painted, the styrene disappears, so it looks like I just drilled smaller holes. Not the effect I was going for. So - this time - when I remake the pilot house for the third time, I will make the pilot house wider to match the grating, and that should give me enough room to use the kit-supplied airports.

Update: Sometime in 2017, Bluejacket updated this kit. The pilot house and other such deck structures are now laser cut and must be assembled. So it's possible they have corrected the deficiencies mentioned above.

March 16, 2016

While waiting for the new etched-brass sheet to arrive, I worked on the stack. Got that finished today.

Forward Side of Stack
Forward Side of Stack
Aft Side of Stack
Aft Side of Stack

March 28, 2016

Work continues on the deck houses. The new sheet of etched brass arrived last week.

Horn House
Horn House

April 2, 2016

The pilot house and cabin are done as far as they can be. Once attached to the deck, there are two ladders and handrails to add, leading to the bridge on each side.

Horn House
Pilot House
Horn House
Pilot House

April 7, 2016

I've spent the past few days cleaning up, priming, and painting various pot-metal deck fittings. Some can't be installed until later on - they would get in the way of rigging the masts - but most are on. The deckhouses are not attached either - just sitting in place for the photos. The aft-most deck house is not quite done yet. This black things lying askew on the deck are turnbuckles that will be eventually be used for rigging the masts.

Deck Fittings
Deck Fittings
Deck Fittings
Deck Fittings

April 24, 2016

All of the deckhouses are complete now and I've started to glue them to the deck. In the overall view below, only the pilot house and stack are glued down. The others were just put in place for the photo. The masts are not stepped yet either, but that's the next project.

Overall View
Overall View
Pilot House & Stack
Pilot House & Stack

May 30, 2016

I was off on a trip to New England for a while, visiting many maritime museums and real ships. Even got a chance to see the real Nantucket in Boston. Now that I'm back, I've done a little work on the model. I'm getting close to finishing up. A bit of rigging, and a few other odds and ends and she'll be done.

Bort Side
Port Side
Starboard Side
Starboard Sice
Starboard Bow
Starboard Bow
Starboard Stern
Starboard Stern