This will be my build log for my HM Cheerful. I started the build in 2016. I worked on it for about a year and a half. Then I took a multi year break until 2023 when on a holiday to the Netherlands, I went to the Museum Kapp Skil on Texel. The Texel Roads exhibit was simply amazing. This visit rekindled my interest in ship modeling, so in 2023 I picked up where I left off. By mid 2025 I had finished all of the woodwork on my Cheerful, and have been taking a break since then. I had posted a rather lengthy build log over on the MSW forum as I was building, but sadly all was lost when the site was hacked. And I never backed up the log, but I do still have all of the photos. I'll go ahead and post the photos. If you're like me, you can learn a lot from looking at photos of what other folks have done. Going forward, I do plan on posting regularly when I start the rigging phase of the build. So, follow along, especially you prior Cheerful builders, you're still my main source of inspiration and information.

Erik

More photos.

And some more.

More photos 🙂.

. . . aaaaand more photos. Haha.

This last batch of photos brings the build log up to where things stand now. All the spars are complete, just waiting on some free time (and admittedly motivation) to get started on rigging.

Erik

It is something Erik...such a nice clean build! Wonderful!

Its a beauteful model!

One positive benefit of the MSW forum hack, and the advent of this new DDM forum is it pushed me over the motivation hump towards breaking out my Cheerful and resuming progress. I finished all the woodwork a little over a year ago, and admittedly back then, the last month or so of completing the spars, anchors, and stanchions was a bit of a chore as my motivation had dried up. Once the wood work was complete I cleaned the dust off my Cheerful (I use an airbrush set at 25psi with two moisture traps to dust my models), carefully boxed her up (in the facial tissue box seen in the top photo! lol), and deep cleaned the sawdust out of the nooks and crannies of my home office.

Where to resume the build then? I set up my workspace, and had to spend some time jogging my memory of what comes next. Reading ahead in Chuck's monographs I saw that I will need served rope soon. I thought I had better order a serving machine. Then I realized my past self had already thought of that, and I found it in my materials stash for the build! The next step then is building the serving machine. Then it's on to mounting the bowsprit.

My build hasn't really followed the monograph, in that rather than building the bowsprit, mast, boom, and spars as I get to that phase of rigging, I completed them all beforehand. So, from here on out it's pure rigging! Haha.

The photos below show everything set out as I get my self reoriented with where I am in the build process. And yes, that's a ring of toilet paper taped around the lower mast. I don't want to get char from the inside of the mast hoops on the upper part of the mast, so that keeps the rings at the bottom of the mast.

Anyway, I'd love for any of you to follow along if you're interested, especially those folks who've built their own Cheerful, are currently building one, or would like to some day. I always appreciate your input, feedback, and mentorship.

Erik

A beautiful example of Cheerful, Erik well done.

Maurice.

Outstanding build Erik, very clean and precise work. 👏

Maurice and Andrew,

Thanks for the kind words (and thanks others for the likes)! It feels good to have resumed my Cheerful project, and I'm psyched to be starting work again. Gotta get the content flowing on the new forum!

Erik

Really nice and precise execution, Erik.

Really nice! I have an eye on that serving machine also, but it was out of stock. Looking forward for your updates! 🙂

Ronald,

It looks like a nice solid tool. I spent a couple of hours cleaning char off the parts today. I'll assemble it this week.

Erik

Though not progress on the Cheerful itself, it's progress towards working on the Cheerful. I assembled the Syren Ship Model Co serving machine. I've never worked with cherry wood before. After a coat of Wipe-on-Polly, the wood really looks nice!

Erik

I had the same feeling as you when putting some WOP on the cherry wood, it looks really nice doesn't it!

13 hours ago, Ronald-V said:

I had the same feeling as you when putting some WOP on the cherry wood, it looks really nice doesn't it!

Yeah, applying WOP really made the color pop. The photos above are corrected to show the correct coloring of the cherry. I like the very slight reddish hue.

Erik

I remember going through this build on the MSW while I was building my Winnie and thinking what an outstanding job you were doing and how I wanted to achieve finish work just like this. Lovely work.

Thanks for the great compliment! I feel like I really hit my stride with the woodworking once I got to the deck and topside details. Now I'm starting the rigging and feel like a total novice again! lol.

Erik