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  1. Just completed my 1:48 scale New England Schooner by Model Shipways. A challenging build but I was very happy with the finished product. Took me about 10 months start to finish.
  2. This was a model build that I had started a few years ago that had been "decorated" by my daughters. And by decorated I mean covered in stickers and painted pink! So I decided to salvage it as best I could and to experiment a little. I added a wooden deck, a spinnaker sail (dyed yellow - never tried that before) and curving the sails to make it look like they were full of wind. That required the use of wire strips to be sewed into the sail perimeters and some bizarre painting setups to get the shapes just right before I applied to some clear poly to stiffen them up. Lots of lessons learnt on this one. The dying of the cotton was interesting - one mistake I made was not to wash the fabric after I had dyed it. When I applied the poly some drippings removed some of the excess dye and change the color intensity a little. Not super noticeable but there you go. The curvature on the sails came out pretty good and I was happy with the overall result. The spinnaker ended up being more like a gennaker sail and I didnt do enough research on how spinnakers are rigged and poled. Some helpful criticism from a forum on Reddit pointed out the errors of my ways so the lesson learnt there was to do more research on sails and rigging before executing. I could go back and change that sail out, reduce the pole length etc but I let it be. It was after all an experiment and I knew I would make mistakes.
  3. Totally agree with this. Right now I am trying to record several Irish vessels with the aim of producing plan sheets that can be used by others to build models. I am researching ships far more modern than what you are attempting and it is really surprising how little information is out there even for ships that still exist! A good example of this would be Galway Hookers and the Asgard. The latter is now a museum ship in Collins Barrack Dublin and was recently completely rebuilt to preserve her yet I can't find any information on her!
  4. Thanks for the feedback. I was looking for a name so thanks for the suggestion. BTW looking through your research on Skipjacks has been quite informative.
  5. Some photos of my first foray into model ship making: Midwests Products Chesapeake Bay Skipjack. This is a really good kit for beginners to start on. Introduces lots of techniques and skills through a really good set instructions, quality cut pieces and a nice scale to work from. I'm not sure if the company is still in business but there are plenty of these kits still out there. Overall it took me about 2 months, on or off, to complete the model. I am very happy with the build - sure mistakes were made - but this was the kit to make them on and to build confidence which it has done.
  6. Is this program restricted to US ships or ships of any nation? I've been mulling about researching a model of a Dublin Bay Smack at the end of the 19th century. It was a single masted variation of the Brixham Fishing Smack - a ship design that quickly took over fishing in the Irish sea and British Isles at that time. Scant information is available on the variation design but I do have several photographs dating to the early 20th century.
  7. My hobbies: beekeeper, painter, model ship maker! It wasnt my goal to get hobbies that rhymed but there you go. Just started my first build which is a pretty straight forward Chesapeake Bay Skipjack by Midwest Products. Really nice kit. Lots of introductions to new techniques, no planking but thats the next model. I wanted something to learn from and to make mistakes on that was not too expensive. Actually most of the cost has not been the model but in all the ancillary items to help me build it (paint, tools, brushes etc) Thoroughly enjoying this one so far. Customizing it a little with some oars, and some oystering tools. I'd love to make some barrels but am not sure how. Next up is the sails and that has me stumped. i never thought one would paint the sails with a lacquer. That really threw me sideways. lots of research yet to do
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