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Barry1

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  1. Thanks!! There is quite a bit of debate on the shields are their placement. I hedged by trying to show the ship at sail, besides I liked the look of the shields in the rack so took modelers prerogatives over most accurate historical interpretation😉
  2. I have now finished the Viking Ship. The rigging was straightforward but a challenge due to the small scale. I added several chests to the deck as well as a couple of the items supplied in the kit, an axe and a bow just for interest. This was an enjoyable kit to build. The English instructions and pictures were adequate, however, a few steps did require some imagination. Wood quality was fine as well. I do suggest good stains and paint to bring the ship to life.
  3. I’ve made quite a bit of progress on the ship since my last post. I fabricated the sail, painted it and added blocks and rigging lines then attached it to the yard. Next was to add the 5 shroud lines. It’s now ready for setting on the ship and completion of the rigging. Next up was to assemble all the oars. There are 14 on each side of the ship, all of various lengths depending on where they would be used on the ship when rowing. While I will display them in the oar racks if I ever want to change the display I can. Pretty unlikely though. Rigging is up next and it looks to be pretty straight forward. Sorry for the quality of the oar pic. I’ve only shown the first batch of 14.
  4. I decided to add another coat of golden oak stain to the deck to deepen it a bit. Looks better to me now. Then went on to mast, rudder, yard and swinging booms. I decided to use the kit supplied bucket and anchor but not the chest. I made up several of my own chests for display on the deck. I don’t know yet how many I will add but I have plenty now. The chests were used not only to store supplies and belongings but also served as seats when the crew were rowing the ship. I decided to display shields on the side of the ship and painted the kit supplied shields both red and white and black and yellow. There is debate on whether the shields were actually displayed on the sides of Viking ships. One theory is that there is no clear proof of this from the ships that have been unearthed and the other is they would have been used on the sides for defensive purposes to protect the crew from in going arrows and such. I am going with the second theory purely based on builder preference. Now starting to work on the sail.
  5. This kit builds up fairly quickly. Finished work on trestles, added cleats and oar racks and stained the deck with a golden oak. It’s hard to see the stain in the light. Will try for a better pic on next update.
  6. I am waiting for a few items for my Mayflower build and I made the mistake of opening the box of my next build the Viking Drakkar by Amati. The kit is detailed on other logs so I will not go into it other than to say the wood quality appears good not great. I have decided to use the kit supplies wood and other accessories although I might add a few items done the road. I’ve been working on the ship for a few weeks so I will catch up with this log. The keel and frame assembly is pretty straight forward. Three of the frames have notches in them to help align the strakes which are all precut and fit well. I found several pics of Viking ships and decided to stain the strakes and frames in a dark walnut before assembling them to the frame. Next up was adding the false deck and planking. All straight forward. The planks were laid center offset per plans and it came out ok. Not sure yet what stain to use on the deck but it will be stained. I then drilled all holes for oars and shrouds. And added spacers and racks on hull. I will show the sail down so oars will be shown in their racks. I’m now working on trestles. That about catches up to where I am in the build.
  7. Continued to make progress over the past week plus. I have added all the deck fittings and structures including 8 kevels, 14 pin rails, 3 ladders, 2 railings, one that includes the belfry, 2 knight heads and 2 pumps. I decided to use the kit supplied kevels and Knight heads. While they aren’t great I did not feel the difference in scratching them at this scale would be a significant negative. After painting them up they looked ok. The 2 pumps are scratch built and some fun with very small and thin components for handles. Good experience though. After assembly these parts were all added to the deck. I also drilled the holes for the masts. I plan to use tenons on the mast so waiting until this stage is fine, if you decide to step the masts without tenons I would recommend you drill your holes as you plank your deck. Once the deck fittings are in place drilling the main mast hole in particular will be a challenge you don’t need. Next up was the ship’s small boat. The kit supplies 7 lifts for a bread and butter hull. First time I did one of these. Pretty neat way to do these. I would suggest as the plans indicate to not glue lift #1 on until the inside of the boat is sanded. I failed to do this and it made sanding the inside VERY difficult. I added most of the details indicated with the instructions except for the oar locks. Also tried my hand at adding 3 clinker planks to each side. Best I can say is I learned a bit on building small boats. Lots to improve on in this area but I am glad the boat is wood and not a cast one. I stained all the deck structures Golden Oak, same as deck and the small boat in American Walnut just to give it a little more depth on the deck. It looks better in real life than in the attached pics. Then the outside structures were tackled including making up the catheads and channel knees; the channels and chess trees were all laser cut in the kit and all fit without much trouble. Per instructions I painted the channels, knees and catheads black and stained the chess trees. Last items were to add the Mayflower emblem to the stern (this is a casting supplied in the kit and painted per instructions) and putting on a coat of matte poly to the ship. And with that the log is pretty much up to date. The work in this update took place over about 10 days and again the instructions have been great in guiding me. Next up is starting work on the masts. I’ll post an update when they are completed.
  8. This week I have worked on the beakhead and rudder assemblies. While the beakhead requires many angled cuts and lots of fitting the instructions and pics are excellent and provide all the necessary info. Same goes for the rudder assembly. I really liked the build order suggested in the instructions. This made the rudder assembly the most straightforward I have done. Still learning though!! Most of the painting was done before I attached the beakhead sides to the ship. This made it easy to tape and ensure all the trim moldings would be aligned. I still need to touch up several areas but I will wait on this until later in the build.
  9. Nice work on your Victory. I just read through your log and have 2 questions, why did you put the Victory on hold for 8 months to build the Prince? Reason I’m asking is as I retired last year I decided to get back into modeling. I built many plastics as a teen. Wood seemed like a great medium and would allow me to build my skills. My goal is to build the Victory by Caldercraft and the Constitution by Bluejacket. My skills aren’t ready for that so I’m following a bit of the Hunt approach and started with some beginner ships and am now working on intermediates(current build is Mayflower). Hopefully by next year I’ll be ready for one of these. I agree that the more you build the more your skills and confidence to tackle new things grow. Love to see your card stock work. Second question was what tools are you using to do your carvings. This is an area I want to build skills in as well. Thanks
  10. It’s one of the mysteries of life😉. I used something from the sewing world. I am not sure what’s it’s called but it is a small very thin wired needle threaded. The eye of the needle is similar to any small block so principle is the same. You can buy these in packs of several at stores like Michael’s or JoAnn Fabrics. Hope this works for you.
  11. I completed the half deck extension. This included adding the hatch and a grate that would be used to remove the capstan when repairs or replacement were needed. Also worked on painting the hull. Many of the “box” pictures show the hull in a fairly bright white but as the instructions and current pics of the replica indicate this would see to unreal. So I am trying an ivory paint (close to eggshell) and covering it with very diluted brown. My goal is to find something that indicates aging on the lighter color. Next up is the beakhead and rudder assemblies.
  12. Thanks! I’m learning some new skills with this build. It’s been enjoyable so far.
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