Cutty Sark by civilian - Constructo - 1/90

[civilian]

Hi everyone!

 

This will be my official build log for Construto's Cutty Sark 1/90. I am already about 5 weeks into the build and finished the hull planking, deck cabins & decorations and is currently working on masts and rigging. 

 

I start my build log this late because I do not want to end up not finishing the model at early stage and everyone knows about it. While I was building the ship, I tried to stick to manufacture's plan with no side work of sketch builds. I will also not paint or stain my model as I think the original dark and light wood color scheme is quite nice. 

 

First is a little bit history of Cutty Sark form the Manufacture:

 

"The Cutty Sark is a clipper ship. Built in 1869 for the Jock Willis shipping line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of design development which halted as sailing ships gave way to steam propulsion. 

The opening of the Suez Canal (also in 1869) meant that steam ships now had a much shorter route to China, so Cutty Sark spent only a few years on the tea trade before turning to the trade in wool from Australia, where she held the record time to Britain for ten years. Improvements in steam technology meant that gradually steamships also came to dominate the longer sailing route to Australia and the ship was sold to the Portuguese company Ferreira and Co. in 1895, and renamed Ferreira. She continued as a cargo ship until purchased by retired sea captain Wilfred Dowman in 1922, who used her as a training ship operating from Falmouth, Cornwall. After his death she was transferred to the Thames Nautical Training College, Greenhithe in 1938 where she became an auxiliary cadet training ship alongside HMS Worcester. By 1954 she had ceased to be useful as a cadet ship and was transferred to permanent dry dock at Greenwich, London on public display. 

Cutty Sark is one of three ships in London on the Core Collection of the National Historic Ships Register (the nautical equivalent of a Grade 1 Listed Building) – alongside HMS Belfast and SS Robin. She is one of only three remaining original composite construction (wooden hull on an iron frame) clipper ships from the nineteenth century in part or whole, the others being the City of Adelaide, awaiting transportation to Australia for preservation, and the beached skeleton of Ambassador of 1869 near Punta Arenas, Chile."

 

There are some photos of the packaging.

 

 

Edited July 31, 2016 by civilian

[NenadM]

Can I join and watch?

 

Hot wellcome to MSW CS Fleet

 

Waiting inpatiently for progress and more photos

 

Cheers

 

Nenad

[civilian]

First I will do some kit review.

 

The kit is manufactured by the toy company Constructo in Spain. The scale is 1/90.

However, this kit is no longer in production. Instead, a newer 1/115 scale model is available where the whole model is about 2 inch shorter and there are some minor changes on the deck fittings. 

 

Plans: There are five sheets of plans on three sheets of paper, including one sheet of plan & section, one sheet of elevation, two sheets of rigging and one sheet of sail patterns. All of them are hand drawn, so some inaccuracy can happen and some times you really need to figure out what is happening in the drawing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Instructions: Even though it seems like you have a good booklet of instructions, it was actually not the case. The instructions was written in 6 different languages. Thus, in the English section only contains five pages, in which two pages are actually part list. The drawings in the booklet is also very diagrammatic and sometimes do not have a scale.

 

 

 

 

 

Materials: The materials supplied by the kit are generally of good quality. The hull is a die cut sheet of 3-ply wood. and other wood mainly consists of strips of dark-colored mahogany and light-colored ayous in different sizes. 

 

The kit uses 2mmx6mm mahogany wood as first layer of planking and 0.5mmx6mm mahogany wood as second layer of planking. As you can see, the material for the first layer of planking is very unusual as mahogany is a relatively hard wood. According to the manufacture, skilled model makers can eliminate the need for second layer planking. Well, I am not one of them...LOL. Luckily, the hull shape of the Cutty Sark does not have dramatic curvature, so the whole planking procedure did not present too much of a challenge to me. 

 

 

The cast fittings are made of brass and cast iron (?), I left brass parts as their original color and painted the cast iron parts from gray to black. 

[civilian]

Finally, Photo Time!

 

First I want to apologize that I did not took any photos while I did the hull planking, as I was not really sure if I should open a build log.

 

These are photos of my progress till last week. I will update my progress this week very soon.

 

 

[civilian]

Pump

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NenadM]

Looks interesting

 

Keep on posting

[civilian]

Hello my friends,

 

It has been a while since my last post, so it is a time for an update.

 

First, I made the bowsprit. Since the front of the hull does not have a precut hole for the bowsprit and I figured it would be too difficult to drill a hole now, so I sanded the bottom of the bowsprit at an angle.

 

 

Then, I worked on the three masts. The finished masts are shown in the picture below.

 

 

Yards are first roughly cut to shape by a hobby planer, and then sanded according to plan.

 

 

Then I tied blocks on the yards using the scale rope provided by the kits. I just did a simple overhand knot and a added dap of CA glue to secure the string on the block and on the yards. I think the scale of this model is rather small and seizing is not absolutely necessary.  I am satisfied with the result.

 

 

Here are the all three sets of yards for the masts. I also installed the handrails and extensions on the yards. 

 

 

Finally, I made this small string holder to facilitate my next step of rigging the ship.

 

 

 

[NenadM]

Looking good so far.

 

Bowsprit connection to fore deck ... be carefull! A lot of small forces from rope lines join there. I think simple qlueing will not be enough

 

Keep on with good work

[cristikc]

Hi, i like the boat, but also the string holder, i will take your idea.

Thank's for share

Cristi

[cbrink1835]

Hello

I purchased this same model used and have no instruction manual. If you are finished with your build would you consider selling yours?

Chuck

[roystrange]

Hi 

Sorry to be so long in replaying as I have had to change my computer so needed to set up!

I have just received a part built model of the mary rose from someone who could not do the planking on the hull!

So wants me to finish it.I would be happy to send you plans as I go and don't need them

If you are ok with that please supply your address and will be happy to post them.

 

 

[cbrink1835]

Thank you sooo much.

I was out of all resources.

I'm not sure if you want my physical address (street and city ) or my email address.

Chuck Brinkman

453 kathleen dr. Newbury Park California 91320

 

Email ; f4targeteer453@gmail.com

 

I would be happy to repay any costs to you

 

Thanks again 

Chuck

. 

[roystrange]

Hi chuck

I misread your request as I have made the cuttty sark but did not keep the plans.

I am now making the Mary rose by caldercraft and would be happy to send them to you as I go if they are any use to you.

Sorry for any misunderstanding  

Regards Roy

[cbrink1835]

Thank you sooo much.

I was out of all resources.

I'm not sure if you want my physical address (street and city ) or my email address.

Chuck Brinkman

453 kathleen dr. Newbury Park California 91320

 

Email ; f4targeteer453@gmail.com

 

I would be happy to repay any costs to you

 

Thanks again 

Chuck

. 

[cbrink1835]

Not a problem