Hermione by Zarkon - Artesania Latina - 1/89

[Zarkon]

Hello all,

 

Since my Victory is on hold, I decided to start something smaller and easier to fit in my busy schedule and my skill level better.

 

I don't have much time to work on this model, (between 0 - 1 hour a day if I am lucky), so I thought the Hermione would be much better choice.

 

First off, here is how the kit arrived

Its funny how it has a big red sticker on it, and it was crushed! UH OH!

 

 

As you can see, I was a little hesitant to open it. I closed my eyes and opened the box and luckily no pieces were damaged!  That was a relief!

 

 

I was trying to find the instructions to no avail.  Then I realized that they were all in pdf and jpg format on the included cd!  That isnt too bad cause at least I can zoom into the photos if I need a close up.  I do like how there are MANY photos to help me understand what the instructions are trying to say.  I noticed that the pictures help more than the English text does! I guess a picture is worth more than a paragraph of words!

 

Next comes the plans.  It included 1 sheet of plans which just had different views of the conpleted model.  I was a little disappointed that it didn't come with plans that showed any cross sections of anything. Bummer.

 

Pretty much all the parts are basswood and ply.  The few pieces that were not basswood were the deck planks.  I think the reason they didnt include much other wood was to: 1) save money on making the kit 2) pretty much all parts will be painted ,except the deck planking, so why include high quality wood if it will just be painted later?

 

The laser cut parts are very detailed with very little burn marks.  I was impressed with the amount of detail they could put into those small laser cut pieces. Here are a few of them 

 

The only pieces I have some gripe with are the basswood strips.  Most of them do not have good edges like so

I would say a good 30% of the strips have bad edges on all sides.  I think this will make planking a little more challenging, but I will have to wait and see.

 

I will be posting later tonight on my progress but wanted to describe the kit first.  I'm already farther on this model than my Victory!

 

So far, this is turning out to be a much better choice!

 

Jeff

[Kevin]

are you still progressing this build. love to see your work

[Zarkon]

On 10/25/2020 at 8:48 AM, Kevin said:

are you still progressing this build. love to see your work

 

Yes I am! I had to stop because of family matters as well as other issues.  I swear I posted more on this forum, but I can't seem to find it.

 

Anyway

 

What has happened since my last post was, I wasn't happy with my first attempt at this model.  I had since gotten another kit and also a book on Hermione.  I started to notice there were many discrepancies between the kit and the book plans.  (I will post more on that later).  So, what I decided to do, was to plank the hull with boxwood and walnut. I also made the stem from boxwood too.

 

Unfortunately,  in the past 2 months, I was rearranging my room when the stem broke by accident.   Here is a pic...

 

 

Oops! Also, the building board was damaged too.  I will be needing to build another building board.  I was sad the stem broke because I wad really happy with how it turned out.

 

But.. this was a blessing in disguise because I realized I needed to make it out of walnut instead anyway.  I will also need to make a few new walnut pieces as well.

 

Also, inspecting the model, I am not happy with how the hull planks bent towards the stem piece as shown below.

 

 

I will be ripping out some strips and remaking it.  Good thing is there aren't many strips to replace. 

 

To do these repairs, I had to order more walnut sheets.  So, I will be waiting until the sheets arrive before I can continue.

 

Thanks!!!

 

Jeff