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Thanks Tom and Mugje and the likes. More progress to show. I finished making the fore and main courses, then carefully cut them off the frame. The topsails will be next to be made. I painted the Captain Cochraine figure, although I have never painted anything like this before. I think it came out respectable. I used a disc sander to remove most of the base, then an X-Acto knife to cut the rest away from around the boots. Here he is just placed on the deck temporarily, wondering when the rigging will get done. He has been put away until much later. I gave him yellow hair as a nod to Captain Aubrey. Finally I have competed the anchors. I made all four but have decided to only put two on the ship. I picked the two best then wrapped line around the rings (puddened?). These have also been put away until later. Work continues on the yards. I have the PE parts installed on all of them and am in the process of painted them black. I will then add the blocks and man ropes to them. I have also been making rope in preparation for rigging the shrouds and backstays. It is all starting to come together now.

Thanks! Between cutting away some of the upper layer straws and poking new ones into the gap between layers, I think it's turned out in a way that I can accept. The rancho isn't glued in place yet, just held by the pins. Next, I'll need to add some protective/stiffening varnish, especially over the new additions. Then I'll be working out the cloth covering that runs along the top.

I would like to congratulate you on the completion of this wonderful model. This is a masterpiece, model building art at the highest level. Thank you also for letting us participate in the construction with your report.

The black primer has been touched up and the dodgy join on the right shoulder of the daffadar looks like its cleaned up with a bit of thickened ca glue. This now sits waiting for MicroMark to send the vice. I plan to try the glazing method used so effectively by @Jack12477 which I seem to recall emanated from the Night Shift guy. I plan to add the bases and then spray the mist coat ready for the glaze coats. I will start with the daffadar because the painting looks simpler and he is by way of being a practice run. My Spanish friend who kindly sent me the Aedes Ars Loarre Castle kit is a professor of Ancient History specialising in the Neo Babylonian Empire and as we all know Nabopolassar was the first king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. If this turns out well it will be a gift and thus the figure will make a round trip to Girona Spain where, coincidentally she lives Thanks for looking in Alan

Hi Ron, I've only just now stumbled upon your build log; to express my admiration in words: excellent skills, super photos, textual explanations to the very point. I'm amazed and I'll follow this build from today on Thank you ever so much. Greetings Joachim

It was time to start adding colour to the seascape. I started with a mid green which actually looked quite promising as I brushed it on. But when it dried I thought it looked far too green and bright. So I added a black wash and that was far too dark \ Next up was a mid grey coat which left the green to show through in places. It started looking promising again. Lighter greens were added to the wave tops and blended in. It feels like this might be back on track Then a light green added to the wave tops and wakes. White blended in and I think its starting to look quite good. I'll let this dry and then on with the gloss medium. I was beginning to think I couldn't get this off the ground but I'm beginning to like how its working out. Thanks for looking in and the likes and comments. Alan

Your making great progress and your model is coming out really well. As to "I didn't realize how time consuming cleaning up all the tiny parts would be," cleaning laser char seems to be an acquired skill. A lot of people here seem to have gotten really good at it (the logs of Chuck Passaro's new Speedwell kit are amazing). I've been working on the Dory, but cutting the parts out of a different kind of wood with the plan to not paint or stain. It hasn't been a time saver over cleaning up kit parts. Debonding is definitely a really important skill. I'll be following along. Dave

I am alive, or so they tell me. I am also finally becoming ambulatory again and my poor CS build is getting very dusty and lonesome. I will return to it, I've promised myself that. When, exactly, is an open question but this year certainly.

The frames are cut out, glued together, installed, and faired. I debonded and reglued the sternpost again after the picture was taken. When I dryfit the garboard strake, it was a little too short. I realized I had glued the sternpost a little too far out. I'm not using the kit parts, and without the laser marked guides, didn't get the post in the right place the first time. After regluing and refairing, it looks like the planks will fit correctly. I tried brushing water on the hull bottom as per the instructions. It looks like it works great on the kit wood, but not the boxwood I'm using. I didn't get an adequate bend, and there were some water stain marks (should have taken a picture, but didn't) on the other side of the wood at the margin of where the water soaked into the wood. I was able to sand most of the stain away. I got an adequate bend from fully soaking the wood (fortunately did not weaken the glue joints) and didn't have a problem with staining.

Very brief update: I just took apart and cleaned up the two frames. Having a bit of experience doing this will no doubt help in the future. Soaking them in a closed container with 95% alcohol for an hour then gently wiggling them apart. I used tweeters and a blade to separate the frames. It worked great, and just needed a bit of scraping to get the rubbery glue residue off. 👍

Log #3 Redoing a couple frame assemblies. I noticed, like others, that the instruction book isn't printed to scale so the frame template doesn't quite line up. With that, I downloaded the PDF and printed it out myself. Had I been at the office this week, I would've used our plotter. Since I'm at home, I had to mess with the settings and the best I got was a hybrid between two pages (since the PDF doesn't have the template as its own separate page). It worked, but you can see in the pic the bottoms of 1, 3, 5 are cut off. I left these to dry just before I went to bed. Well, subconsciously I must've really wanted to take something apart. In the morning, I noticed a couple of the frames were glues very cooked. Assemblies 3 and 5 shown below were the worst. I assembled them into the building board and thought about moving ahead, but decided to redo these two frames - they're now soaking in alcohol. In hindsight, Since the template I printed had the bottom cut off, I feel this contributed to me not lining these two frames up right. They were also the first two frames I put together. For whatever reason, I was more focused on the right angles where they meet the building cross piece than I was making sure the two pieces of frame were flush where they meet. Ultimately, my decision to redo was based on: Aside from #3, these are to have bevels sanded on them - having them so uneven will create a pretty sloppy, staggered bevel. The char isn't a great gluing surface and a lot of it wouldn't be removed when beveling which could compromise the strength and lead to unforeseen issues later. Even though the worst part will be hidden when glued to the rest of the boat, the frames wouldn't be at the correct angle and are closer together than they should be. I didn't want to risk this creating excessive gaps and bends when planking. I'm expecting to get the frames reassembled soon, but I'm playing catch-up with work today, and the wife's birthday is tomorrow so I'll have to play the rest of it by ear. Thank you, druxey for the peace of mind. This also led to my decision to err on the side of caution to redo the frames since they'll directly affect the shape of the bottom board.

Thats really nice work it looks fantastic

The AEG got it´s teeth - hmmh, well - besides the painted on jaws I mean. The LMG 17/17 Parabellum are from Gaspatch, airbrushed satin black and then I rubbed on steel pigments with a cotton swab. Stock and grip are painted with oil colors and after seeing the pictures, I decided to put on some varnish for a more realistic look. The kit guns are not bad and I used one inside the fuselage, but detail of the Gaspatch ones is absolutely fantastic. Positioning of the guns is not final. I also made some touch ups and detail painting and added the artificial horizon. Gun mounts and other details got sprayed aluminum, then covered with hairspray with the dark sea blue on top and finally weathered with a toothpick. Cheers Rob

I bought this (or something similar) years ago when I was going to get into carving: https://www.amazon.com/PSI-Woodworking-DC725-Portable-Collector/dp/B000REX1UU?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=AP845MBBUYCQH I haven't used it yet to be honest as I haven't been doing any carving, so not sure how effective it is. It wasn't exceedingly loud if I remember correctly. When I do things like sand or drill or work with resin, I found putting my shop vac nozzle in a vise near where I'm working is an easier and very effective method for removing dust.

Oneida is getting ready for her playdate with the other ships tomorrow in New London, CT-- Ron

I'm painting the figures to go on the diorama and I'm very new to this... One previous attempt. So I watched a couple of YouTube videos. The one I've followed was to prime in black, then highlight with white. This is what I ended up with, although this figure is for a different project Next step was to water down the paint and apply very thinly, glaze it effectively, and then add some highlights by dry brushing and a bit of a darker paint wash to add depth. It's amazing how the the high and lowlights really make a difference, I've tried to capture it in the images below.

No, it reminds me of some of the outbuildings on our farm when I was a child alan

Thanks Chris! Interpreting the war diary has proven to be a much bigger project than I anticipated, but it’s really fascinating. Especially during combat, the entries are very abstract (dates, times and map coordinates), being able to “zoom out” and see the bigger picture, although sometimes complicated to piece together, has definitely provided much needed context. My hope is, when it’s all completed, to get it printed and bound in a hardcover book to share with my entire extended family (well, I will have multiple copies printed so there’s no squabbling 🤪) Andy

New price for this kit of just $140 plus shipping! Dave

How do I get to be friends with her too?

New lower price for this kit! Now $250 plus shipping. Several excellent build logs to assist are available on MSW. Dave

I would agree with your assessment. Much easier to get a flush fit.

Hello everyone, I am embarking on this new project, my favorite period is 1800, after having built a French ship and an English frigate, I am trying my hand at building a corvette, Boudriot's plans do not include the framework , I therefore proceeded to the drawing myself, by hand, what I needed to build this corvette in frame, I must thank Gérard Delacroix for the advice he gave me and for the plans he provided me, he was very kind, and thanks also to Francis Jonet for making one of his available books, after spending twenty days drawing, I started the construction with the axial elements, let's see what comes out of it , any errors will be corrected during the construction phase. This time I'm building in 1:48, because the model allows me to have manageable dimensions for me:

I have the same issue with the material that came with the kit. I tried three approaches to deal with the problem. 1. I asked Model Shipways to provide replacement strips. (No response since their acknowledgement email on December 1, 2023.) 2. I ordered replacement strips from Modeler's Sawmill. Unfortunately the strips were significantly darker than the basswood that came with the kit. Because I was/am still hoping to keep a natural finish, these were not usable. (They were also significantly shorter - I'd say 2/3 the length of the stock in the kit, so ask about that when you order). 3. I went to Ace Hardware and purchased material that was a tad thicker than the kit's stock, and used my thickness drum sander to get make my own replacement strips. The color was an exact match, and the strips were spot on in their dimensions.

The last of the port cutouts - of course - I nearly cut into the planksheer on my last section. I’ll have some painting to redo on my interior planksheer sections. I’m not convinced that early painting of the waterway & planksheer was either a good or bad idea. There’s a lot of sanding to be done to prep for the rail and painting but for now - I’ll leave that for later. On to the transom gunports.