BETAQDAVE

Step G was primarily concerned with the installation of the ships keel, stem, and rudder as shown on the instruction sheet below. Billet 13, shown below, contained the majority of the parts involved with this step. The slots on the bottom of the planking sheets were somewhat unique, as shown below, in that they were made to accept both the long double ply tabs of the false keel and two separate shorter ply tabs of the actual keel that in effect made the keel itself a total of four card ply's thick. I started with the center keel (part #198) which had one end wider than the other where it would join with the stem and a hole to punch out where the ship would seat on the display stand. It also had a pair of bending seams that ran parallel to each other down its center for the length of the part. You can probably make out those seams in the photo of the billet above. This effectively allowed the sides of the part to be spaced enough to accommodate the double thickness of the false keel tabs that were already projecting through the planking sheet, but it also resulted in a somewhat rounded over edge to the keel. The aft portion of the keel (part #197) was somewhat similar in that it had the parallel bending seams and a hole to join to the display stand, but it had two additional slots for the two ply rudder (part #206) which needed to be sandwiched inside of it. After joining those three parts to the ship, it was on to the stem portion of the keel (part #208). This piece was quite intricate, so extra care was needed to get it separated from its billet without deforming the skeleton figurehead. This part was also similar to the previous keel parts, except for the fact that the parallel seam didn’t run the full length of the part, leaving space inside of it for (part #204) which was the remaining part of the stem as shown below. Once the completed stem was installed on the ship, the arms, legs and chest were installed per the included subset illustration. Since the skeleton was in such an exposed position and was so fragile, I reinforced all of his joints with a dab of glue. So here he is now, installed at the bow in all his glory leading the way forward. There were also ten steps for the entry ladder to be added next, followed by four window shutters for the rear cabins. It seemed to me that the ladder and the name plate should have been on the same side of the ship, but the stand can easily be reversed since it wasn’t glued together. Step H, as shown on the instructions below, was tackled next which included four more unlabeled subsets for the upper and lower quarter galleries. I started with the starboard upper gallery part #243, which was actually a combination of the railing and deck. Once again careful removal of the part from its’ billet was essential, but the kit parts were all very precisely cut. One tape backed trim piece (#T2) needed to be attached to the bottom-side of the deck and another tape backed trim piece (#T3) to be attached below that. However, there was no description of how it needed to be aligned and once attached it would be very hard to realign. Looking closely at these three parts below, you can see that apparently there’s a pattern printed on their faces showing deck beams. So I lined up the patterns and the two straight edges which left a somewhat smooth curved transition, which I assume was the intention. The deck now had to be folded under and the front side of the lower railing bent into a curve to match the deck. The roof of the gallery consisted of two parts: a hard surface and a canopy. The hard roof (part #39) was actually a channel for the Mizzen shrouds and its installation was very straightforward. Once the gallery deck tabs and the channel tabs were aligned with their corresponding slots, the assembly was installed. The canopy (part #254) on the other hand, was a bit trickier. This was the first introduction to the printed paper parts. The pointed poles were to protrude through the punched holes in the canopy and a crease was required to bend the lower apron over the beam. The two tabs on the top edge needed a bit of the double sided tape provided with the kit. These tabs were attached to the sides of the rear castle walls where they would be concealed below the gilded rail facing part #T6. This required forming a slight belly in it to to allow the top edge to follow the lower edge of the railing trim. After the completion of the upper starboard side gallery, I repeated the procedure for the port side gallery. So now it was time to move on to the wrap-around lower gallery. This was a very awkward installation, as it was all formed from one part (#193) with numerous complex bends, folds, and tabs to align all at the same time. I over-bent (beyond 90o) all of the required bends ahead of time to make it more flexible. But, if I had to do it over again, I would have glued the tabs in place as I went around, or if I had an extra hand or two, but then you know what they say about ifs, ands, or buts….😁 As it was, I inserted the tab in the end of the railing first and then two of the side deck tabs before manhandling the four rear deck tabs which arched to follow the arch of the bottom of the railing. Now, while still holding all of that in place, I set the side deck tabs and the final tab at the end of the railing. I think the hardest part was trying to insert the tabs where they went around the corners. The final part of this step was to install the 23 deck support angle brackets. Keeping the arched rear deck aligned with the bottom edge of the railing was one thing that I was never really happy with, but it was over and done with so I just let it go since there was really no way to clamp it and using CA wasn’t possible either. Here are a few photos from step H. At this point, I still hadn't noticed my error with the transom, but more on that later. To be continued.

That's definitely a mass of rigging. Looks like any pirate crew would have had their hands full. My card rendition really skimped on the rigging.

That's one down, only fifteen more to go?

After going through all of that Ron, I'm assuming that you won't be covering your woodwork up with a canvas mast collar coat.

So now that the supporting framework was completed, it was time to plank the hull. Not being accustomed to building a plank on bulkhead model before, it was at this point that I realized that, although this ship was simply a ribbed construction of card, it was a very solid structure and it was already easily recognizable as an actual ship. While the method being used here is not your typical planking technique employed on wood or even card models, it was definitely quicker. Here is the instruction sheet below for step F. I began oddly enough, by installing the ships counter part #195 despite all the other parts being numbered in the 40’s and 50’s. I’m assuming this was due to the fact that there just wasn’t enough room left on the number 5 or 6 billets with the rest of the planking parts so they stuck it on billet 13 where there was. Then all of the gun port lids were inserted from the insides of planking parts 46 and 53, since it obviously would have been a bit difficult to do so after the planking sheets were in place. The the two projecting keel tabs on the aft portion of the ship were stuck through the corresponding slots of planking sheet number 46 as shown below, while I contemplated exactly how to handle the ship while lining up the four slots with the four tabs on opposite sides of the poop deck and the two on the deck below at the same time without knocking the two stairs off. Having successfully installed that part without any mishap, I easily attached the two bow sections followed by the remaining central section as shown below, with my supervisor looking on. This completed step F.

Step E began with an unnamed subset that showed part #52 that first needed the top portion folded over, leaving the number printed on the hidden backside. The top portion was bent over and formed into a curved roof top with two tabs stuck through it that would then project into the gilded trim part #T19. Part #T24 is then added to cover T19 and complete the trim subset as shown below. Continuation of the illustration of step E as shown here. The Mylar part #T4040, representing the stain glass in the transom, needed four strips of the double faced tape applied to its edges. Once again, the alignment was critical in its placement on transom part #116 so as not to cover up the slot openings. Next, all of the gilded trim pieces T11 through T23 and the unnamed subset were added to the transom. This was followed with another unnamed subset of the forecastle below which included the deck, railing, two ladders and another fife rail that is stuck through the deck from below. The step was concluded with the application of the top cross bars of the deck gratings on decks. Here is the ship at this point. At this point in the construction I still hadn’t noticed that I had installed the first subset and the gilded transom trim on the WRONG side of the transom! More on that later.

The actual assembly guide started simply enough with step A for the support stand. The part numbering system however, didn’t seem to follow any particular order. Step A, as shown below, started with part number 240 joined to part number 17 which was from an entirely different billet. So I had to do a lot of searching for the correct parts for each step. At least the instructions were well illustrated with contrasting colors showing the parts involved in each step, and the finished assembly shown in white. They included exploded views of subset steps like A1 shown above. Certain parts with a gilded finish were called out with a T added to it. For instance, Part T7 in step A1 above was the first use of one of those designations. The backside of these gilded parts are all covered with paper that needs to be peeled off to expose the pre-applied adhesive underneath. Needless to say, careful alignment is required to allow the exposed edges to blend in with the piece below, because they can't be shifted at all once they are in place. Wherever these parts are employed, this symbol is nearby. As the instructions continued on to step B, the diagram for the assembly of the frames on the keel. The previous A1 subset shown in gray, was brought forward and its new placement was shown below. Just below that diagram, the lower deck part is shown in pink and shows its alignment below that with the framed up keel in white. The first instance of folding a part came up now and was shown as an unlabeled subset. Careful bending was required for this interior stair assembly, because the core of the part could easily separate from the vinyl facing. Lastly, the placement on the deck of the stairs and twelve of the cast black plastic canons was shown to complete step B. Here are a few photos of the state of construction at this point. Step C followed with the alignment of the main deck on the previous frame and several subsets, including the main cabin entrance wall, the next deck above that with its pair of stairs, the curved balcony railing, and the ships wheel. Here is the ship below with the subsets from step C added to the ship and a portion of step D. Step D was actually more of a continuation of C than a separate step. The subset C1 was brought forward and combined with the upper cabin walls and attached to the main deck. The upper cabin walls, the Poop deck above that with its railing, a fife rail that passed through an additional upper rear deck, and various other fittings to go with it were all assembled and added. Step D continued with a pair of curved stairs with subsets D1 and D2. Those stairs were quite a handful themselves, between bending in the curve, inserting the seven treads, and anchoring the ends to the two decks without twisting them out of shape. They are shown below after their installation and the status of the build at the completion of step D. To be continued.

She was thought to be a three masted frigate of approximately 200 tons, that measured 103 feet long with a beam of 24.6 feet. Originally operated as a slave ship operated by René Montaudin, a leading slave trader of Nantes, until it was sold in 1713 in Peru. She was briefly operated by the French Navy in November 1716, but was sold by them for commerce five months later in France as a slaver once again. Then in November 1717 she was captured by Edward Teach (AKA Blackbeard the pirate) near the island of Saint Vincent in the West Indies. After Blackbeard and his small fleet of pirates sold her cargo of slaves at Martinique, he gave her the name of Queen Anne’s Revenge. He made her into his flagship and added more heavy cannons. (For a total somewhere between 30 and 40.) He continued to operate her and his small fleet for less than a year in the Atlantic Ocean between the west coast of Africa and the Caribbean, attacking and capturing numerous British, Dutch, and Portuguese prizes. Then in May 1718 while attempting to blockade Charleston harbor in North Carolina, his flagship ran aground while entering Beaufort Inlet. Despite efforts to kedge her loose by one of his smaller ships, the sloop Adventure, he decided to disband his small flotilla, transfer supplies to the smaller ship and make his escape. Several of his crew members were stranded on a nearby island, who were later rescued by Captain Stede Bonnet. He ended up surrendering shortly after that and accepted a King’s pardon for himself and his remaining crewmen from Governor Charles Eden at Bath North Carolina. However, he soon resumed his career as a pirate and in November 1718 he was killed in combat. On November 21, 1996 a shipwreck was located by Intersal Inc., that laid in 28 feet of water about one mile offshore of Fort Macon State Park, Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. They believed it to be the remains of Queen Anne’s Revenge. After much research and recovery of artifacts from the wreck, the National Geographic Society finally confirmed on August 29, 2011 that it was indeed that ship. During the interim while they were still trying to confirm its identity, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. The site is now owned by the State of North Carolina and located South of Beaufort Inlet. As somewhat of a side note to this ships history, the Sunset, a replica of Queen Anne’s Revenge, was used in numerous roles in the Pirates Of the Caribbean films.

I previously posted a review of this model kit back on January 4 th of this year. I took numerous photos of it during the process and have decided to post this build log for it. First, I'll give you a bit of its history and details of the actual ship. While there are no confirmed records of the date and place of construction it is generally assumed to be around 1710 since there are no records of its activities prior to that date. She was a three masted frigate of approximately 200 tons, that measured 103 feet long with a beam of 24.6 feet. Originally operated as a slave ship operated by René Montaudin, a leading slave trader of Nantes, until it was sold in 1713 in Peru. She was briefly operated by the French Navy in November 1716, but was sold by them for commerce five months later in France as a slaver once again. Then in November 1717 she was captured by Edward Teach (AKA Blackbeard the pirate) near the island of Saint Vincent in the West Indies.

Perhaps I can provide some personal insight on this concept Gregory. See my build log for the whaling bark Wanderer in the Kit build logs for subjects built from 1851 – 1900. The 1/87 scale plastic model kit is made by Aurora and I am heavily modifying the kit, by replacing most of the plastic parts with wood, including the ships deck.

I would use a strip of double sided tape to hold it in place. Others here use a temporary adhesive followed by a release agent. I'm sure there are probably other methods that are covered in the shop notes area of our forum.

I could suggest another possible option here Ron. Before I throw out old appliances or tools, I always disassemble them and salvage anything useful, especially if they can be used for models. If you have a small old electric motor driven tool that you no longer use, you could use some of that fine copper wire that's wrapped around the armature. The smaller the motor, the finer the wire. If it's disguised as rope and it needs to be draped, it can easily maintain the curve and there is no fuzz to deal with.

That is probably true, but it just makes your results just that much more remarkable! My paternal grandfather was also very good at carving by hand back in the depression with his own handmade tools. I was always impressed by how he could create such beautiful sculptures and furniture from the most basic tools and scraps of lumber that he could get a hold of. I think that's who I inherited my urge to recycle rather than replace from.

That's a very remarkable improvement on such a small detail!

Looking at the box art photo, they appear to do just that. On the actual ship I'd be willing to bet that the rubbing strake was trimmed back where they overlap. Otherwise, replacing the portholes would be next to impossible.

One begs to ask the question Ian, just how heavy is this beast going to get when its fully loaded? Looks like you might need to get pumped up at the gym first to launch and recover it. 💪🏋️‍♂️

Boris, that's a very impressive amount of fine detail for such a small scale!

Welcome John, hope to see some of your work here soon.

Having recently reviewed the scratch build log of Phantom 1868 by victory78 – New York pilot boat, I was intrigued by how much more can be shown at his larger 1:50 scale version. Most notable to me was the differences between the plans provided by the Model Shipways kit and his version. While I have no way of determining which version is correct, I suspect that since his version seems to include a lot more details that don’t appear at all in my kit plans, I’ll go with his version. One example of this was that the waterway and the margin plank on the foredeck are indicated as separate features on his, as opposed to the kits’ version of just a single plank. I’m not sure, but perhaps the kits’ smaller scale led to them to just simplify it. Another notable feature that his version added, that seemed like it would have been a logical thing to see on a ship like this, was the reinforced deck doublings in the areas around the mast holes and bitts. It seemed so logical in fact, that I decided to include them to my version, especially since they seemed to be an easy feature to add. Since my bowsprit was not yet permanently attached, it was pulled out first to allow adding the doubled deck for the winch bitts. I made up these three somewhat simplified versions of the doubled decking area add-ons as shown below. You can see that I even included a version of his contrasting body wood for the winch bits, but was unable, at my scale, to make them separate pieces. So I just compromised, and was able to combine the two into one. He also made body wood for all of the deck projections, but once again, with the difficulty of working at my much smaller scale, I decided to skip the remaining projection trim. (I think that if I had known about them earlier in my build, I might have included them, but that’s water under the bridge now.) After completing the doubler decking sections and test fitting the winch bitt with the bowsprit reinserted, I discovered to my dismay that the bitts had been placed too far back from the bow and the extra thickness of the decking had also lowered the angle of the bowsprit! Once again it was back to doing some more damage control. So the pointed bow end of the doubling deck and the heel end of the bowsprit were both shortened, and the bottom cross beam of the bitts was filed down until the proper angle was restored. Whew! But wait for it… when test fitting the fife rails, I also discovered as you can see below that the spindles included with the kit were 0.16mm too tall and caused the rails to be tilted! It seemed like if I found one thing that needed correcting, something else also had to be changed. Comparing my wood bitts to the metal fitting that came with the kit, they were a match size wise. Which only left two possibilities. One, the spindles provided were too tall, or the fife rail fittings were too short. At least the error was apparently not mine. But, since the metal spindles couldn’t be shortened, I had to add 0.16mm to the bottom of the posts. Since I was never quite satisfied with the previous fife rail posts anyway, I wasn’t all that bummed out about it. Unfortunately, while taking my glued up fife rail fittings apart I broke one of the plastic rails, which would have been the hardest part to reproduce. Luckily it only broke into two pieces, so all it needed was to be glued back together. So I ripped down a couple more 3/32” x 3/32” maple strips as shown here and cut the notches for the fife rails as I did originally. Rather than filing a peg at the bottom of the posts again, I decided to add that missing 0.16mm to the bottom and to cut them off at 10mm and drill a hole into the bottom for a 10mm long 0.62mm brass nail with the head filed off. Which left about 6mm exposed to go into the deck. Since all of my light buff deck house paint from Model Shipways came out of the jar the consistency of a hockey puck, I ended up grinding it down and added enough water to get it somewhat usable again. The first time around I had made the mistake, of gluing the fife rails together prior to painting and as a result, the assembled fitting was very hard to sand between coats and the resulting finish was rather poor. So this time I painted all of the components before assembly to make them easier to sand between coats. Of course my paint was so watered down now, that I had to use six coats with light sanding between. I did manage, however to get a much smoother finish this time. While I had been careful to avoid getting paint into the notches, I forgot that the wood might still swell a bit from so many coats of watered down paint. So, another test fit was done, and sure enough, the notches had to be lightly filed for easier assembly. Now all I need to do is add the half cleats and reassemble the fife rail fittings for later installation on the deck. My next posting will cover making the navigation lights and the portable anchor davit.

Well, I gave up trying to salvage that first attempt to make the davit since trying to anneal the 1.15mm wire at this point would only melt the solder that was already holding the flats on the end. So, after receiving my new functioning torch, I came up with a different method that would work with my limited tools and skill working with metal. This is a rough sketch of my idea of how remake the end of the davit. It solved the multiple problems of drilling that hole, fattening the sides of the wire, and adding the flats on the end at the same time. After annealing some 1.15mm wire and 1.7mm wide 0.075mm thick strip of brass, the wire was bent into shape and the brass strip was folded in half over some 1.15mm wire. The next step was to clamp and solder the strip to the end of the wire as shown being sure to use enough solder to fill the gaps on the top and bottom between them. A scrap of 1.15mm maple was slipped into the gap between the sheet for support and maintain the alignment between them and a 0.50mm hole was drilled through for an eye bolt. Then the folded over end portion on the right of the strip shown in green was cut off and filed into its finish shape. While the newly fattened portion of the wire on the left was clamped in my vice, the top and bottom areas of the strip and solder in green were filed off flat to the surface of the wire. Now that there was a wider surface to work with, it was clamped in the vice, a heavy needle was used as a center punch, and that pesky 0.50mm hole that created such a problem before was finally drilled for the other eye bolt. The final step was to just file away the remaining brass sides shown in green into their rounded shape. Making a pair of eye-bolts from some 0.50mm brass wire, which were cut to the proper length to leave just enough exposed to glue a very short portion of some hollow thin wall brass pipe to serve as the nuts. Thanks to all of your suggestions guys. Apparently those drill bits I used actually were sharp, the annealing process really did make quite a difference! Here is a photo of the assembly as it stands now with its brace added.

Well, my new torch arrived and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. It was securely packaged and arrived just 4 days after I placed the order. In addition to the torch itself, there were some very well illustrated how-to instructions and a plastic bag with three plastic accessory fittings to aid in the filling and/or emptying of the butane gas. The instructions are written with the inexperienced user (like me) in mind, pointing out all of the features of the torch and how to use them. Having only used a soldering iron previously, I appreciated that even things that more experienced users wouldn’t even think twice about, were things that were explained here. This seems to be a very solidly built and rather stylish looking tool. It has a very stable chromed copper base, so concerns about tipping over are minimal. The metal gas tank has a built-in leak-proof inflation valve under the base that’s covered with a black diamond cut surface which makes it very easy for me to grip and stays cool to the touch. The business end has a long-angled and heat-resistant ceramic nozzle that helps to keep your hands safely away from the flame. It doesn’t come with butane gas (due to shipping restrictions), but it comes with those plastic fittings to allow filling from most commercially available butane gas bottles. Refilling the torch fully (8-11g) only took me about 10 seconds or so. The chrome plated copper piezo press ignition button made it easy for me to ignite a continuous flame and allowed me to use it one-handed. A flame mode regulator control, located just behind the nozzle, allows switching between 2 flame modes of either a tiny blue or a large yellow flame to control the heat. The manufacturer says that it can reach a maximum temperature up to 2,372oF (2372oC), but I’ll have to take their word for that as I have no way to measure that. There is also a fuel flow regulator dial on the side of the torch that allowed me to make additional flame adjustments. An additional safety feature is a cover that snaps over the fuel flow regulator dial which prevents the ignition button from being inadvertently depressed. It also came with a 2-year warranty. At this point I have experimented with it a little bit annealing some brass and soldering a few things and it does seem to be as good as advertised.

Well, I did bite the bullet and ordered the RAVS-2001 torch from Amazon for about $23 with free shipping and it arrived just 4 days later. I will probably write up a review of it later, but since it actually works as advertised, I’ll be too busy in my shop making a new davit. 👍

In my younger days, in addition to the few plastic models listed below in my past builds that I ended up selling, I also built numerous models of movie monsters, cars, military vehicles, rockets, and ships that met their demise through various means in the years since. There were a few of them that were the most memorable. One military vehicle that really stands out in my memory was the U.S. Army's M60 AVLB (Armored Vertical-Launched Bridge. It was an M60 Patton tank chassis with a hydraulic folding scissors bridge mounted in place of the turret. Developed in 1963, some of those are still in service around the world. Then there was the 1/123 scale Revell model of the Polaris submarine from back in the 60’s that had one side of it cut away to reveal its interior details, and the 1962 Atlantis 1/110 scale model of the Atlas rocket complete with its launch pad and the Mercury capsule shown here. One model that I sought, but was never able to get hold of was this 1/35 Tamiya model of the US M16 Halftrack pictured here. It was a M3 half-track fitted with a quad mounted 50-caliber Browning automatic heavy machine gun. My primary reason was that my father was a crew member of one of these going through France and Germany during WWII.

Opps, looks like this should have been put in its own kit review rather than added onto the American Revenue Cutter listing. Can anyone correct my error by putting it into its own review with the heading: Queen Anne’s Revenge (Blackbeard’s ship)? Sorry Jeff.

As my interest in jigsaw puzzles and ship modeling is well know by my friends and family, I was presented at X-Mas with this 3D model kit of Queen Anne’s Revenge (Blackbeard’s ship) by my wife's nephew and family. It’s more or less, a combination of my two interests in one box weighing in at a substantial 3 lb. 7 oz. While it is certainly not an accurately detailed rendition of the vessel, it will be my first entry into card models and I look forward to it’s assembly, which judging by the 23 page illustrated step by step instruction manual, (in 7 languages no less) should not be too difficult to complete. There are a total of 391 pieces including the display stand. The vast majority is printed on 15 sheets of 11” x 16.5” pre-punched sheets of 1mm card stock printed in color, but the sails are on 3 sheets of textured paper and there are 22 plastic canons, a small sheet of double sided tape, a card hole puncher, and small sheet of prefinished Mylar to represent stained glass on the rear of the ship. Although glue is not required for construction, obviously if you would like to keep it for display you might like to use some. No tools are required, other than the hole puncher that is included with the kit. It claims to be rated as a 6 in complexity, but not sure if that is out of 10 or what. I tend to believe that according to its estimated construction time of 4 hours it can’t be all that complicated. This kit is designed and manufactured by CubicFun Toys Industrial Co. Ltd out of Guangdong, China and is referred to as an anniversary edition, but I’m not sure if the company has produced an earlier model or if it refers to something else. While there is no indication of scale, the completed size of the model is listed at 29.1” X 10” X 24.4” (or 74cm X 25.6cm X 62cm). As this was a gift, I have no clue about its cost or if it’s a pirated copy of some other company’s product, but from what I can see, it is well produced and nicely packaged. While the model is admittedly more toy like, it is not pretending to be anything other than a 3D puzzle. Overall, I think that it seems to be a good introduction to card models especially for modeling fans that are inexperienced or just want to get their feet wet, so to speak.