James H

Ah yes! The masking tape is on the keel whilst I sanded back the filler on the hull underside. It was just to protect those surfaces. Once I was happy with the hull planks, I removed the tape from the keel and sprayed the whole underside. I use Ronseal natural acrylic wood filler on the undersides, diluted. I also added about 50% Titebond Original to the mix as it's easy to sand, more so other Titebond glues.

lol!

Morning! I was hoping to have more to show you, but finishing off the hull underside to get a nice even and homogenous surface really is a labour of love. Nonetheless, here's my work so far. The main wales are now fitted to the model, after a 30 minute soak in hot water for the forward half. Positioning this is very easy as it simply follows the line of the lower outside pattern parts that were fitted earlier, and covering the first two laters of later cut planks. The wales are pinned in position whilst they dry. This is left overnight as pear can expand quite a lot when soaked. Once dry, the wales are glued with PVA and pinned in place. After fitting the main wales, a narrower and thinner wale is added to their upper edges. This is supplied in halves. The inner stern upper counter and stern fascia are now fitted. Both these have inner and outer panels. I bevel the edges of these slightly as they butt up against each other. Some minor measurement is done to make sure the parts are central. Now it's the turn off the quarter galleries to be fitted. The core of these are some MDF frame parts. These are now fitted. Before gluing, they are trimmed at the rear end to the size of my particular build, and bevelled to match the angle of the stern fascia. The edges are bevelled to accept the exterior parts. This will be explained in the manual, and it's dead easy. All of these parts are supplied with extra material so there's no need to worry about things not fitting. Note also the small ply part (51) between the frames. This is there to get the angles of the frames to the hull, correct. Now the gallery frames are fitted, the model is masked up so I can spray the wales and the inside of the upper quarter gallery areas. I used Plastikote aerosol to do this as the coverage is excellent and is ok straight onto timber. The stern upper counter and fascia outer panels are now glued onto the hull. Note how the outer fascia now creates rebates for the window glazing parts. The quarter gallery window areas are constructed in the same way as the stern, with an inner part fitted first. Again, these parts have a little extra on the front and rear to cater to individual builds, and there will be little to nothing needed to be trimmed along the upper/lower edges. A thick pear 'roof' is then bevelled to the engraved line and these are fitted to the top of the quarter galleries. The gallery berthing panels are now added below this. MDF parts are now used to construct the lowest areas of the quarter galleries. These are assembled to each other on the model (but not glued to the model just yet), then set aside to dry. They are then shaped to match the gallery, checking progress by test fitting to the hull. Once shaped, some pint is scraped from the wales and the sections are glued into place. Out comes the waterline tool again. Checking this against the hull profile so both the prow and stern are at the same height, the line is added and the model masked again. More sanding, filling is then done. This took me about 4 days to get into a position where I was happy enough to paint. Plastikote White paint is now added. This is done in thin layers and more rubbing back and filling will need to be done to get a smooth, even surface. It is tedious, but the results pay off. The last task I did was to take the bow rail patterns and soak these before clamping into position on the hull so they can dry in shape. With these taken off, the hull can now be selectively varnished in places before applying the red, blue and black exterior panels. You'll see that in my next update.

Well done! Very nice result 😎

Lovely work. Nice to see another of these being built.

Shame you don't want the ratlines, but this is a yacht Can also be built with very basic, standard tools. Lots is pre-cut/pre-fabricated, engraved, and from pearwood. You can see a build log in my signature, and the instructions are downloadable to see first, from the website. https://vanguardmodels.co.uk/product/duchess-of-kingston/

That turned out beautifully 🥰

I don't think a search for 'new kits' would turn up anything as they only stay new for a time, so not worth tagging as such. What sort of thing are you actually after?

@DelF Your photo processed in Adobe Lightroom. I should've tweaked more, but it's only a 30 second fix.

I think it's important that for a white backdrop, you buy something which is bright white. For my use, I have a large card sheet called 'ice white' which is excellent. When I do larger photos, I draw down a vivid white roller blind as a drape. I still need to generally fix white balance in Adobe Lightroom, but it's pretty simple.

You'll be able to see into the cabins via the cutaways in the quarterdeck:

Prob going to be another week before I update. The engraved wales are now fitted and those needed to be altered slightly from the first cut parts, so little things like this need a couple of days lead time. I've just painted them black, and I'll be concentrating on the stern and underside this week, so there should be something worthwhile to show you in a week's time.

If it's not ready for Christmas, Chris will kill me and probably never use my services again! 😆 The stern lettering is PE, and sits above the letters which are engraved on the stern counter.

It's all coming together 🤗

I would've thought so, but I'm not too sure. Just building it as per instructions.

Sure is, as well as horn sound, working lights etc.

Don't worry, you didn't.

You're lucky if you have a local hobby shop. Most I know of succumbed in the 1990's/2000s, let alone any that would ever sell anything as niche as wooden ship kits or the accessories needed to build them. Even when my little town had 4 hobby shops in the 1980's, and as many others that sold hobby stuff as a sideline, there was never even a sniff of wooden models. You know, Manchester (UK city) doesn't even have a model shop any more....and you'd think a city that size would have several. Nope. The last, Manchester Models (Deansgate) disappeared a good few years ago. When it comes to model ships/boats, it's generally the internet that's keeping us going.

STAGE 52, 53, and 54: DRIVER BUCKET SEAT, DRIVER SEAT BOTTOM, DRIVER SEAT COVER, SEAT BELT AND SEAT-BELT HARNESS For the sake of repetition, the next seat is built up in the same way as the previous. The two seat belt hooks are now pushed into position, and the belts fastened to them. Both seats are now secured to the interior via screws from the underside. STAGE 55: TRUNK BOARD AND TANK FILLER PIPE This one is dead simple. The tank filler pipe is secured to the truck board with a single screw. STAGE 56: CIRCUIT BOARD AND ELECTRICAL CABLES There's no actual electronics work involved with this, or testing. Each lead needs to be plugged into the socket on the circuit board that has the same number, When complete, the circuittboard is fastened to the trunk board. That's all for the moment.

Onwards with Pack 7! It really doesn't seem to have taken long to get to this stage. Quite a simple pack this month that concentrates on the interior, so we can 't yet cure the wobbly front wheels on the main chassis. 😜 I've put some stages of this pack in the same sequence as at least 3 stages contain zero work. STAGE 49 & 50: BUCKET SEAT/PASSENGER SEAT COVER, SEAT BELTS AND SEAT-BELT HARNESS First up, the double-sided 3M tape is cut to size and stuck in position on the plastic seat, like this. I ignored the instruction to cut to 4 lengths the same size as you really need to cut them to the actual size needed. The front tape lengths are then trimmed to shape. After peeing off the outer tape paper, the seat cover is slid over the plastic seat and then the sides pulled in so the tape fixes them in position. This is a little awkward, but works quite well. With the seat cover in place, the seat cushion from a previous pack is then screwed to this, holding everything in place. The lap belts are now pushed onto the lugs on the seat underside. These hold the parts real well, and I found no need to add any glue. STAGE 51: BATTERIES, BATTERY CABLES & CUT-OFF SWITCH Both batteries are plugged onto the mounting unit. These can only fit one way. Two screws hold them in position. The battery unit is then screwed into position from the underside using 4 screws. Both battery cables are then connected to the power shut off device, and this is then secured to the interior. Both batteries are then 'wired up' like this. One cable will flap around, but that seems to be normal and it will be hidden behind a seat. Note I removed the gear stick too. That's to stop me damaging it. I'll replace it later in the build. The battery holder is now pushed into place. No screws required.

3ft tall (half scale) and weighs about 13lbs

STAGE 96: ADD THE LEFT KNEE CAP AND ASSEMBLE A TOE The two kneecap parts are glued together and then the part glued to the leg. And the construction of the toes also begins. STAGE 97: BUILD PART OF THE LOWER LEG, AND A SECOND TOE The lower led is now started, and another toe built. STAGE 98: CONSTRUCT THE THIRD TOE, AND EXPAND THE LOWER LEG ASSEMBLY More work on the lower leg with the attachment of muscle pistons, and another toe is born. STAGE 99: BUILD A FOURTH FOOT PART AND ASSEMBLE THE LOWER LEFT LEG The outer shin is now attached to the lower led....and another toe in the series is built. STAGE 100: ASSEMBLE THE LEFT FOOT AND ATTACH THE LOWER LEFT LEG After building the last toe, then can all be fitted to the foot. It's vital to check the toe orientation and position from the instructions or it'll just look weird. I know as I did it upside down the first time. First, the lower toe joints are secured to the lowest point on the front of the foot, then the upper rods fasten to the connection above this. The lower let is now fastened to the T-800 with a single screw. As there is a ratchet disc on this, it can also be posed at the end. Until Pack 11....that's it. 😃

Well, we are now onto Pack 10. At this stage, the model is extremely heavy and not so easy to manoeuvre for photographing! I'm also more wary of just lifting this thing by the chest cage and now grip by the pelvis too so I don't put any unnecessary strain on the model. Everything seen in this pack is just a reproduction of building the previous lower leg and foot, so these pics just show the key assemblies. STAGE 91: ASSEMBLE A MUSCLE FOR THE LEFT THIGH Muscle piston! All glued parts use CA gel. If there was a lot of chrome plate, I first rubbed each joint with some fine abrasive paper to provide a better key for the glue. STAGE 92: KNEE, MUSCLE, AND FOOT: MAKE PROGRESS ON THE LEFT LEG These are the three assemblies built for this stage; knuckle joints for the foot connection, muscle piston, and a knee joint with a ratchet wheel glued into position. It really isn't easy flipping the T-800 over, but it needed doing! The thigh muscles are now screwed into position. STAGE 93: BUILD OUT THE FOOT, AND CONSTRUCT ANOTHER MUSCLE A nice, simple one. Another muscle piston, and screwing the foot section to the previously build foot assembly. STAGE 94: AFFIX THE LEFT THIGH MUSCLE WITH NEWLY-CONSTRUCTED TENDONS The other muscle piston is now fitted to the thigh, then connected to the other muscle and screwed through the thigh frame. The ankle ball joint is now fitted to the foot underside. STAGE 95: ASSEMBLE AND AFFIX A KNEE JOINT If only a knee replacement was so simple! The knee joint is fitted with the ratchet discs and muscle piston. This is then dropped into position and the knee end caps pushed into position and tightened with a hex screw. This can be adjusted to pose the T-800 when complete. ...and a little more work on the foot with the piston connectors and ankle joint.

Cheers, that really is a beauty. Now I see her when I visit the site 😁

Just OUTSTANDING!!!! Absolutely love the whole finish from the black hull to the sails you managed to dye far better than I did 😆 Question is....what next? I'd love to see you tackle a Flirt or Duchess. Could you create a Gallery album for your finished pics too?