James H

A fairly quick update here as you've seen many of the fittings being built. The hull is now complete, up to the chainplates/deadeyes being fitted. I'll do that tomorrow. Here's a few photos to show you where I'm at. Onto masts in a day or two!

An amazing build. At least we have the finished photos but the actual log is now gone.

I believe this replaces it:

Welcome to MSW, Greg. That's a lovely kit, despite its age and there's all sorts of stuff available for it. Looking forward to seeing the build log.

You're doing this real quick and those frames look great, and smooth. Nice straight keel line too.

Hi Bob, Klear/Future is a pretty tough product when set and with the decor being flat, it sticks to the hull very strongly. It's every bit as good as CA for this sort of application. You'd need to get a knife blade and really push it to flick the part off. I use it a lot for my magazine work when I sometimes attach PE to plastic and resin parts before airbrushing. As a rule, I use it where there's no likelihood of the part being vulnerable, or I'll use CA gel instead.

Time for a quick pause and another update. The hull has changed enough for me to merit uploading a few images of my progress, so here we go! I quite like Humbrol's Flat Blue enamel paint, so this is applied to the upper bulwarks, after some masking. This is thee same blue I used on Flirt. To stop this soaking in, I first painted a little polyurethane varnish in over the area first. When dry, the blue was masked off and the top bulwark areas painted in red at both bow and midships, backwards. Before fitting the gunwales, it's easier to first soak these pearwood patterns and form them around the bow. As pear can expand quite a lot, these are left in position to dry overnight before the clamps are removed. Each gunwale is three pieces per side. These are painted in black (I use Games Workshop Citadel Chaos Black aerosol) and then glued into place. There was virtually zero trimming needed for these. The forecastle and aft gunwales are left a little long to accommodate any hull variations. The pear patterns are now painted acrylic black around the window areas and then they are glued into place directly underneath the overhang of the gunwale sections. This makes alignment very easy, plus there's pin holes in these which align with the outer bulwarks. It just takes a little care and a few minutes per pattern. The wales in this kit are supplies as pre-cut/shaped parts. These are soaked and formed around the bow before being allowed to thoroughly dry and be painted black. I fit them with CA gel and also use a 3mm spacing strip to make sure they are equidistant from each other from bow to stern. My waterline is now reinstated and after masking, I use Rustoleum's White Primer to spray the hull. I did need to use a little dilute acrylic filler and rub down between coats. Red paint is now used on the stern decor fascia and the part glued to the hull using CA gel. The decor is theme removed from its casting block and soaked in hot water for 10 seconds. The slightly floppy resin is then laid over the stern so it has the correct shape. My Humbrol blue enamel is used to paint the part, followed by Vallejo's Liquid Gold, mixed with a few drops of isopropyl to allow it to flow easily. Once the stern windows are fitted, plus their embellishment, the decorative panel can be glued in place, followed by the gold trim lines. At the bow, the V brackets, hawse bolster etc. are fitted in place. I actually made this part a while ago but it now seems like it should be shown! The rudder is made from a central core, with the pear facings, exactly as per the keel. There are quite a few sheets of PE in this kit. These are first primed and then sprayed with Rustoleum's Bright Gold aerosol. Afterwards, a couple of thin coats of acrylic varnish are applied to protect the metallic finish. These parts are then fitted to the hull. With the exception of the curved bow ornamentation which was applied with dabs of CA gel, the rest was secured by flowing a little Johnsons Klear (Future) around the edges of them. This stuff allows a lot of time to get the part positioned correctly before it starts to set. That stuff is every bit as solid as a superglue bond, with the added bonus that is you apply a little more later, or use Windex, you can remove it and reset it. Fitting the PE doesn't actually take too long and it's easier than you'd think. More PE is used on the quarter gallery windows, complete with an overlay which neatens things up. Again, pins can be used to align things like gun ports etc. and you'll need to use shortened pins in the alignment holes and glue them into position. The figurehead is also painted and installed. I'd looked forward to making and installing the cabin bulkhead as it looks very attractive. ...and here's the work so far! There will only be one more major hull update after this, and that's just before I move onto masting.

I believe this stuff is very good: https://ak-interactive.com/product/water-foam/ https://ak-interactive.com/product/water-gel-transparent-250ml/ https://ak-interactive.com/product/ak8043-resin-water-2-components-epoxy-resin-375ml/ Never used it but seen nice stuff done with it.

Such beautiful work! Are you using epoxy to replicate the water?

Iwata do some great airbrushes and that's what I use for my work, including magazine work. I have an HP-CH and HP-C+. There is a cheaper Iwata called a Neo and they perform superbly too. I would also tend to go for gravity-fed. I've also heard great things about the Mr. Hobby Procon too. My compressor is an Iwata Smart Jet. Take a look at www.airbrushes.com for some ideas.

I think that turned out rather well! It seems like a lifetime ago since we chatted about the planking.

I put a little offcut of timber on the inside bulwark, where the holes are being drilled. Just saved any possible breakout/splintering of the timber there.

The Vaporetto is a strangely beautiful thing and I spent many a trip around Venice on them a few years ago. Gogs' build was perhaps one of my favourite ever build logs, and I was gutted when it, and all MSW1.0 crashed and burned. Panart's kit is actually very nice, so I can't wait to see you start to make some sawdust with this and give us your interpretation.

That looks good to me. The only suggestion I'd make would be to taper that bearding in a little towards the last bulkheads, simply so the planking isn't pinched in towards the stern post. Got to say that you're doing a great looking job of this 👍

Could it be something to do with copyright? It does seem pretty stupid to withhold them.

They are just cut from the sheets and glued in, followed by a lick of Vallejo black acrylic paint. You can blacken them in a solution beforehand though.

I'm pretty sure Chris said this was already sorted on the production parts.

I don't know how I missed this one, but she's sure a lovely little vessel, and I have one here myself.

Time to plank those inner bulwarks now 🤣 Looking good!

I did think about that. I suppose it's down to the individual. Removing char from cross-grain is harder than 'with grain', and bearing in mind that I need to move quickly with this model, I took the decision to leave it, as per Chris's design prototype. There's no reason why a modeller can't remove all char as they've more time to do this than I have.

I did remove the laser char and also used a small tungsten carbide file to add the same profile the other sides of the parts too. No paint for the gun carriages. They'll be in plain wood, the same as the inner bulwarks. We figured the red was more suited to a fighting vessel.

I've already made a Scalemates entry. Does it need amending?

Time for an update. I actually built most of this a. couple of weeks ago, in between tasks on the hull. I'm still doing that with other stuff at the moment whilst I add the rails and wales to the model and ready her for painting white underneath. These are just a small selection the photos I've done for these fittings, but you'll get a general idea. Cannon Gallows/Bitts Steps/Stairs Binnacle Coamings Not too much to say for these purposes, but they will have detailed text on how to make each item in the instructions. I'll do another update next week.

That's correct. Royal/aristocratic yachts tended to be named after the person they were built for, such as the Royal Caroline which became Royal Charlotte for George III's wife. As this was built for the Duchess of Kingston, I suppose it's as good a name as any for the vessel.

Firstly, welcome to MSW! This is a kit that I started building about 14yrs ago but it got destroyed in a house move, so I'll definitely be watching you progress with this one, to completion. I seem to remember it can be a little tricky around the bow and forecastle, but nothing insurmountable.