James H

This is coming along so well. Not too far from the finishing line now, relatively 😁

I have a little 'stepping' of the planks at the bow so I may lose a few when I sand, but I can easily put them back. I didn't lose any at the stern, but that's because I sanded a little further than the laser line, after seeing your build log. I think it worked ok.

A full eleven days since my last update! Well, my workshop has been stifling hot, so I've not spent as much time there. Master Korabel produced a lovely kit with some nice builder details, such as the lines that you can join up with a pencil across the planks....only lightly though as we don't want to mark the surface irreversibly! These pencil lines help us place planks in relation too each other. With the hull sanded smooth, the pear wood second layer planking could begin. A Dremel was used at the 1st layer garboard plank, thinning it down to bleed between the planks and the false keel. A strip of pear was lined along the keel edge and the hull sanded into this, reducing the width of the keel joint so the second planking would sit up next to it. First of all.....a quick fit of the pear keep to make sure it fits properly. Ignore the space between the deck and inside bulwark. That's intentional and a waterway will fit there. Planking starts with the most important and keep plank which runs as the outside bulwark. This of course needs to be placed at the correct height etc. You can gauge this with the positions of the gun ports etc. but if like me, you were slightly out with some frames, then a small compromise needs to be made. Before the planks are added, I soaked them for 5 mins in hot water and formed them around an aerosol until dry. With the first planks on, the lower internal wale planks are now added. I found these a little trickier as I needed to make them conform around the shoulder of the hull, in an almost compound curve. I can do some sanding later. From this point, planking is fairly straightforward, but stops when I reach the bottom of the tafrel area. This is so I can sand, shape and trim to fit tafrel parts to fit. After some small adjustments on the stern keel area, allowing the next planks to fit continuously, these are all finally added. I used Titebond on these, brushed onto the planks, and I did each plank in three glue sessions. Next up is some very gentle sanding and fairing as I don't want to really lose any of the laser details. More next time!

Looking amazing. I love the warmth the oil has given to the pear planks and the deck. I suspected you might need to finish the surface after oiling with the grain raising a little. Something I'll watch out for on mine.

MarisStella, Amati, OcCre, to name three more.

Ain't that the truth! 🤣🕰️🤣

The kit is entirely developed and they have a manual, but they want the manual re-made into their current style. That means them sending me the parts and at least building and completing the hull, and me sending them the corrected/annotated photos and the text to go with it. They also want me to double-check specifics on the build too. I don't think you're far off the mark with a couple of years, but at least it's now happening whereas a couple of months ago, there was a distinct possibility you wouldn't have seen this for much longer....if at all. There is an upside to two years though.....time to get some cash set aside for it!

Impressive finish so far. I bet you're looking forward to the rigging 😈

Amati add a few bits and pieces such as barrels and axes, bow, bucket etc.

Hi Mike, Welcome to MSW! Ok, off the top of my head, I don't know the thickness of the keel and bulkheads, but I would've thought between 3mm and 4mm. As for other Viking vessels that are available, you're in real luck as I have some Viking stuff coming tomorrow from Dusek Models, and I'll be doing an in-box review on MSW. I'm not sure what will be in the box yet, but I have a rough idea. Jim

Not an easy undertaking at all, so kudos for bringing this to small scale.

Looking very cool, and that laser-engraved deck really looks the part.

I know this is my build log, but these are examples of photos taken with this setup:

That's exactly what it is. This is exactly how I do all of my magazine and book work for several publishers. I subscribe to Adobe's Creative Cloud. At the moment, I have the full suite on an Educational package, but you can get just Lightroom and Photoshop for about £10/month. They are invaluable tools for anyone wanting to do anything like I do that will go into print.

Only a small update this time before I sand the hull and prepare it for the pear planking. First of all, I glue the deck in place, but only down the centreline of the hull. The edges are left loose for the moment. I'll explain that in a moment. With the deck installed, the inner pear veneer bulwarks are installed. To align the bulwarks, some brass pins are inserted through the bulkheads that we saw modified in the last post. I gradually worked my way around the frames, gluing the bulwark as I went. Small pieces of scrap pear veneer are used to protect the bulwark from the jaws of the clamps. with the bulwarks in place and securely glued using Titebond, cocktail sticks are slipped under the bulwark, pushing the edges of the deck down so I had a nice and even gap all of the way along the bulwark. This is just under 1mm. I had to add a little shim in a few places under the deck, between the deck and the hull frames, but not too many. A scrap piece of the material from the waterways ply sheet was tested to make sure it would cover the gap. Hopefully, there'll be minimum fuss when the waterway is fitted. Very happy with this so far. Ok, @Peta_V, here's a photo of how I do my pictures. This is quite a small area which I primarily used for photographing 1:32 model aircraft, and I will need to expand when I start the Amati 1:64 HMS Victory build in a couple of months. I use two Tri-phosphor Spiral CFL Daylight Balanced Pure White Light Bulb with 5500K Color Temperature (85W) for my lighting, diffused with bubble-wrap. The card is A0 in size and described as 'Ice White' which is perfect for sorting my white balance. The camera is a Nikon D5100 DSLR, used with a 18-55mm VR Lens. I sometimes use my 35mm lens, but I've no real need for most work. Camera is set to Manual mode. Photos are then processed through Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

Those cannon look superb.

Chris already answered the first one, and that was because it was what he was asked to do. No one knows why they aren't releasing new designs. You could email and ask them I suppose.

The current position is that I need to build Amati another Victory for their new style of instruction manual. I'll have the parts around Sept/Oct. From there, I'll do a build log (of sorts) here and as soon as complete (minus masts as those are done via drawings), Amati will compile their photo manual from what I send them (pics and text). They'll need to get their PE and laser cutting made, plus boxes, fittings, plans etc. Then you'll see a release. I presume that they will be ordering in their materials in the latter stages of the build, once they know no changes need to be made. NOTE: Renamed the topic title to reflect the discussion on the Amati kit.

What oil are you using? Will this not cause the grain to raise?

I'll take a photo of what I use to create the pictures when I do my next update.

I'm afraid my magazine photo style dies hard with me. 📖 My apologies. Your build is what is inspiring my work!

I've had a couple of days away from the bench for various reasons, so it was good to get back and work on this lovely little kit again. As per instruction, the laser-printed deck was test fitted to the hull to check the fit in the inner bow area. I was pretty pleased with this. On frame on the port side helped create a small gap but that will be hidden when the inner bulwarks are fitted, and of course, there are the waterways to install also. Some port and starboard frames need to have a slot added to them to accommodate a 0.6mm brass pin. These are created with a fine razor saw and a scalpel knife. Once made, a small piece of pear is added to them and when dry, a 0.6mm drill bit is passed through to ensure clean passage for the pin. These pins will help to locate the inner bulwarks and it's important that the frames are matched up against the bulwarks as they are being added. I opted NOT to add the pear gun port linings as I would lose the laser-engraved marks on those faces. I could've done it, but it didn't seem to be really worth that extra effort. At this point, I do a little work on the deck. First, some pear-faced ply parts are used to line the deck apertures. These sit roughly 0.4mm lower than thee decl surface. Some sanding was needed to make sure the ply parts fit into the holes. CA was used to glue these and then dry, the underside of the parts were sanded flush with the deck underside before some reinforcement parts were added. Lastly, two beams were added which gives the deck the required camber. More soon...

A fair summary. You could pull it in at just over 4ft long if you were to build the hull as an Admiralty-style model with all framing on show. I think that's how I would do it, or I'd need a much bigger house.

Never seen this kit before.

Welcome to MSW... ...and semi-named after one of rock's best characters! Looking forward to seeing you whittle some wood here on MSW.