James H

Please remember that not everyone has the time, inclination or workshop space to produce the parts needed to scratch build. I know I don't. That's why I'm happy to work on quality kits. I sometimes feel that there are folks on MSW that look down both on kits, and those that build them.

Personally, I prefer pictures. With a video, you have to take time to watch it instead of scrolling images. If I see a video log, I tend to ignore it.

Here's some box art for you.

Will you be building this kit as a build log?

Saucy Jack is now complete, and it's a short break from the cave before I head back in to work on Ranger. Here are the finals. Hope you like them. Chris is now compiling the manual and box art, so it won't be too long now before this will be on sale.

The Endeavour will be online within the next week too

Wonderful stuff, and I like the breeze effect on those sails 👍

Just a quick, interim update before completion in the next days. Saucy Jack is probably one of the easiest boats to rig, even with the shrouds and rats. Very little timber work on mast/spars too. Here are a couple of the parts I made for this, ready for rigging blocks. The bowsprit is now added. The sails are first dyed in liquid RIT dye (Tan) and left in for a little longer than normal. I wanted these fairly light to suit the white hull underside and pear wood colours. Too much contrast would've hurt my eyes. Jack is finally masted and her full size is now clear. Yes, she's quite dinky! Proper rigging starts with the shroud lines wrapped around the masthead. And then tied off via 3mm deadeyes. I told you it was only a small update! More very soon when she's fully complete.

I've increased it to 200kb Some sites I'm a member of only allow 10k for a pic (!!!!) and max size of about 50px x 50px 🤪

Welcome to a fellow northerner. I love Manchester. Lower Turks at Shudehill is one of my favourites, and the Vine on Kennedy Street. 🍺

Cheers. It's been a lovely build too. I think I added another update just after that, while you were posting. Hull final pic shown. Here's the wood grain technique from the instructions I did for the VM ship's boats.

And onto today's second part of my update. I do it this way now so there aren't 30 - 40 pics in one post. The companionway is a nice, simple assembly. Nothing difficult to fathom here. The rudder can now be permanently fitted, and the tiller shaped and glued into place. PE rudder hinge straps are now painted and glued into place with CA gel. The channels on Jack are very narrow, and engraved lines on them indicate where you need to drill through and insert shortened brass pins for some extra strength. I also deepen the engraved holes on the upper rails, going into the bulwarks about a millimetre or so. The channels are then glued into place. Notice the area on rail left unpainted, where the engraved position was given. That was masked while painting the rails, so there's a good, clean gluing connection. Jack's stern frieze is now painted white and glued into the green panel. Jack's bowsprit is roughly parallel to the bottom of the keel/waterline. As the bowsprit is from 4mm dowel, I used a 3mm piece, wrapped in some sandpaper, and used the bowsprit post as a guide for sanding down the gunwale and bulwark to accommodate it. A simple task that took no more than a couple of minutes. Other ironwork is now fitted, such as the bulwark cleats, eyelets and belaying pins. 3mm deadeyes are now fitted to the chainplates and secured to hull. The brass pins will then be painted over (not shown on these pics). Saucy Jack's completed hull! Next up will be masting and rigging.

Another update.. This time, it's finally fitting out the hull before masting. This is where things, for me at least, come together quickly as I've already made the deck fittings, during the early stages of this build. That's the sort of stuff I do between gluing frames and planks. Here you see the fishing hatches from the previous update, now fitted. Then the belaying rack, mast base and eyelets in situ. Then the forward hatch is built and fitted. The windlass on Jack is supplied as a 3D printed part and looks very nice. The windlass side posts are designed to trap the 3D part, allowing a little freedom for things to move so you can properly and evenly mount the assembly to the deck. The drum would've been wood, so this was painted with Tamiya Desert Yellow, then oil paint dragged with Raw Umber and Raw Sienna, creating a grain effect. With the windlass mounted, the bowsprit post knee and base are added. The windlass pawl is also fitted to the bowsprit post, made from PE. The capstan on Jack is quite small compared with the other fishers. Please ignore the last picture where it's popped apart slightly at the top.

So pleased to have Artesania Latina with us on MSW. They really are the company who started me in this hobby, and by that token, responsible for MSW today.

A quick update! Work progressed on the lower hull. Sanding, filling, priming....repeat! Once the hull was unmasked, it was masked again for the upper bulwarks. I used Tamiya Flat Green for this, applied with an airbrush. This stuff applies real nice and seems like the sort of shade that working boats would've used. ...then the engraved wales. The align with the lowest etched line on bulwark, and is designed to nicely had the transition from bulwark to planking (plus any resulting pin holes!) ...then the upper rails. Again these fit in the narrow band just under the painted bulwarks. ....then lastly the gunwales. These are applied and then the rear gunwale is fitted separately. Belaying racks are now fitted. A small break from hull work now as the fish hatches and grating is assembled. Ok, more in a few days when hull will be fitted and totally complete.

Instead of Fair-a-Frame, just consider burning your money. A total waste of time.

You are 100% correct.

No wonder you struggled getting contact. That country hasn't existed since 1992 😆

With the null now planked, the MDF bulkhead ears can be removed. These are twisted and snapped off with pliers before any remnants are sanded flush with the deck. I found the maple deck to fit perfectly with no adjustment needed. This is gently bend before being glued into place. LOTS (!!) of clamps were used to hold it down around the edges so nothing decided to lift while the glue set. The inside waterway and timberhead parts were now added. The position for these two parts is engraved on the inner bulwark. There are no individual timberheads to bother you on this kit. A sanding stick is now drawn over the bulwark top edges, levelling and evening the surfaces. A waterline is now referenced from the drawings, and applied to the hull. Everything above this is now masked off and below, it's filled with dilute acrylic filler. More soon!

For the first planking, you could, if you wish, split the planks into halves to make it easier. You'll also need to start tapering very early on in this process. As is now the norm, the keels are faced with pear, creating a rebate into which the second layer planks will sit. This demarcation takes a lot of guesswork out of this process. Second layer planking is also in pear. Before planking, the outer, lower counter is added. This is first soaked and allowed to dry while clamped/taped to the hull. When thoroughly dry, it's then glued into place. The stern board is now fitted. The 'windows' will be removed later in the build. The outer planking starts with the addition of the upper bulwarks. These are glued and pinned into place. The position of the pins (shown), means the holes will eventually be covered by the wales. Second layer of planks now complete. These are added with CA gel and tapered/edge-bevelled so they fit as closely as possible to each other. I have added some as halves, but only in the lower area as this will be painted over. Before sanding, the engraved portion of the bulwarks is masked off, protecting that detail. She's most definitely looking the part now.

Time for an update. Fairing Saucy Jack is a breeze and seemed to take me less time that Fifie, Eyrcina, Nisha and Zulu. Dead simple. Just use something similar to a sanding stick and allow the material to curve over the bulkheads as you sand. Check a plank at intervals, to make sure you have maximum surface contact area to the bulkheads. A few of close-ups of the faired hull. The lower, inner counter on this fisher, is cut from a thin, maple veneer. This allows it to band around the curves very easily. This was now glued and taped/clamped while it set. The keel is a 3-part construction, with the prow and lower keel being fitted first. The rudder post will be left until after planking, so the tail end of the planks can be properly shaped to the MDF end. The sides of the maple counter are now sanded flush with the hull sides so there are no protrusions. Jack's bulwarks are single-piece items, with the lower engraved line being the one you need to align with the top of the ply deck. Get that right, and you'll have no problems here. Each bulwark was glued and pinned into place until dry. No glue was used above the deck though, as those MDF ears will eventually be removed.

I use Gorilla CA gel, straight from the bottle. The tip is fine enough to apply nice, small dots along the planks with some consistency.

That really is just gorgeous. I think you populated the deck perfectly.

When you paste something into the text box, a message will pop up in the bottom left corner of the window, like this: Just click that 'Paste as plain text instead' link, and the text will match MSW's regular system font.

The gallery is only for completed models anyway, so a model 'underway', wouldn't be a suitable addition.