Golden Hind by Kihon - Mamoli - Scale 1:53 - circa 1577

[Kihon]

Hello everyone.

 

I started this more than 15 years ago and it was the first wooden ship model kit I had bought (also the last to date!), however after second planking and being confounded by the kits inaccurate parts, such as the chain plates, and having no experience of ship building, I gave up.

 

Well the internet is much better now with all sorts of info out there such as this site/forum so after stumbling upon it, I was inspired by rschisslers build log of this kit to try again to complete it.

 

So here is my build log from now; I had taken pictures previously but that was back in the days of pin hole cameras if I unearth them I will add them in.

 

Here is where I started from recently.

 

 

 

And the most recent work, not much so far;

• hand/cap rails installed
• some gratings
• hollowed out the boat
• adjusted the front pointy bit to accept the goat or hind figure head (no I'm not kidding, I'll try to get the names right but I'm no nautical person!)
• border on stern installed

 

 

 

Unfortunatley the hull is twisted, is there anything I can do?

 

 

 

Anyway hopefully I'll get better pictures and more detail as I go on but it will all be inspired by Mr R Schisslers work.

 

Cheers,

Ciaran.

Edited June 28, 2016 by Kihon

[Kihon]

I've a bit to go before I'm on to the masts but I like to jump about in the building and not do it in sequence but I'm concerned about how to taper the spars and masts.

Anyone got any tips?

 

Also are there any UK people on here that could suggest a good supplier for the items such as better rigging thread, blocks for guns, triangular deadeyes, smaller belay pins, etc?

 

Thanks,

Ciaran.

Edited June 28, 2016 by Kihon

[Jeff-E]

Hi Ciaran,

 

First let me say welcome to Model Ship World

 

Your model looks real good, it looks like you have made a good job of the planking. It is a shame about the twist but I don't think anything can be done about it now without major alterations. It may have been caused by a twisted false keel in the beginning.

 

To taper your masts and yards the method I use is first cut them about 25mm longer than required, so that it can be held in a drill chuck without any damage to the actual mast, and then mark a circle on one end the diameter it needs to be tapered to. Then measure from that end back down the mast to where the plans state that the taper starts from and mark it. I use a small hand plane to carefully first square the dowel, planning from the mark to the end of the dowel, being careful to keep just outside the marked circle. I then plane the corners off making it eight sided and then plane the corners off again so I end up with a sixteen sided piece. The other end is put into a battery drill and the tapered end is smoothed down with sand paper until the correct diameter is achieved.

 

I don't live in the UK but a good reliable supplier that I know of there is Cornwall Model Boats they have a web site and ship worldwide. I am fairly sure they will be able to help you with any supplies that you require.

 

Hope this helps you

[EJ_L]

Ciaran,

Your ship looks good and considering it has been sitting idle for that many years, thats even more impressive as often they get damaged while on the shelf. It is good to see you returning to the hobby as well. We have had many discussions lately about people leaving for many of the reasons you did so it is nice to see someone return and try again.

 

Unfortunately I do not know of any easy way to straighten out the hull at this point as the planking locks it into shape. As Jeff said it probably originated with a warped false keel from the beginning. Hopefully someone else may know of a way.

 

Don't feel too bad about the proper names. I find myself stopping to look up what something is called all the time. Best advice I can give on that is to try to use the proper terms once you have learned them a lot. The more you use them the easier it will be and as I'm sure you are like most of us and do not sail or build ships on a daily basis, the only time you will really get the chance is when you post on here.

 

Good luck and I look forward to seeing her come together.

[rschissler]

Believe it or not, I had the same problem with the twisted hull.  I wish I had paid more attention in how the decks fit, as they were flawed, and I think that was the main source of the problem.  Nothing you can do about it now.  I would suggest you sand a little more on the uneven planks at the front though.

 

I used a drill press for my masts and spars, as that let me use two hands for the tapering.  I drilled a hole, slightly bigger than the dowel being tapered in a piece of wood and clamped it to the drill press table.  So, one end in the chuck and the other in the piece of wood, like a vertical lathe.  I used files and sanding blocks of wood to taper them.  For the squared ends of the masts, they were easier to do than I expected.  They are too small to use a small plane.  I just made some cuts with a #17 Xacto chisel blade, and then used a sanding block to make them square.  When gluing the other mast sections and flagpoles together, lay them out on a flat counter top, and turn them from side to side.  This will help you ensure that they maintain parallelity with each other.  Remember that I reduced the size of my mast caps, as I thought they were too bulky for the masts.

 

If you want to do sails, I would recommend Wolfgang Mondeld's book.  There is a drawing of an English galleon in the beginning part of the book, that seems almost identical to the Golden Hind kit.  There is a lot of other rigging info in the book, so you have to research.  The biggest challenge is that you have to add extra belaying points.

 

I used 3mm blocks for the gun rigging, from Chuck's Syren Model Ship Supply.  I would think he would ship to the UK, so I would contact him.  He is quick to answer email.  In fact, I thought most of the blocks in the kit are junk, so all my blocks, deadeyes, and rigging thread came from Syren.

 

I searched for commercial triangular deadeyes, and there are none less than 5mm anywhere.  That's when I found Syren could make custom ones.

 

If you use the same 8mm belaying pins I did, from Amati, they are available in the UK.  I know, because I got some from there.

 

For the balcony, The rear wall is curved, so when you glue the floor to it, it should maintain the curve.  I left the inner cutout of the floor planking a little oversize for final fitting.  So, when fitting the finished balcony to the rear hull, you just have to adjust it, by sanding, little by little until it fits tight and square.  Of course you have to make the little cutouts in the short sides,to fit around the wale.

 

If you are talking about the three holes above the gunports, on the outside of the ship, the two lower ones are for the pins to the hinge castings, and the upper middle one is a through hole for a rope to hold the door open.  I did some filing on the hinge castings to bring them to a sharp point, glued them to the doors, then individually set and labeled each door  for later installation.  Installing the gun doors will probably be the last thing I do to the kit, as they would easily get knocked off while doing other things.

 

Randy

Edited June 30, 2016 by rschissler