James H

Impressive! Which ship is this?

Struggling with pre-formed ply planking at moment, so put on hiatus. New build project starting soon.

Small Building Slip Hobbyzone Catalogue # HZ-PSM2 Available from Hobbyzone for £25.79 (as of 11th July 2018) My original intention for this review was to do something in the style of the waterline marking tool, but as I've already been asked to create a building guide for the Professional Building Slip which I will publish next week, I thought I'd put the style to practice for this article so that Hobbyzone has something that they can use to refer their customers to. This will be a comprehensive build review...almost like a manual for assembling this product. The product itself is packaged into a cardboard box and the materials within are wrapped in a LOT of bubblewrap to protect further. Furthermore, the contents within are also bound by masking tape to prevent them joggling around in the box. All parts within are made from MDF which has been routed out, leaving only shall tags that can be cut through with nothing more than a craft knife. A number of parts have a white finish to one side. A small bag of hardware is also included. All you will need to assemble this is some wood glue, craft knife, and clamps. Onwards with the build.... 1. First of all, remove the MDF tags that held the parts into position on the boards. A craft knife is perfect for this. You won't need files etc. 2. Take two of the bolts and fit them in the main board. No glue is needed. Flip the board over and now glue the forward strip with the white edge, into the tabs at the front of the slip. Do the same with the small edge pieces. You may consider clamping these until set. Now, tale the narrow MDF slat which has the notches towards one end and glue this right up to the small edge pieces you just fitted. Those notches MUST line up with the ones on the baseboard. Again, clamp this until fully cured. 3. Take the remaining two strips and glue one on top of the other so that the notches line up. The parts will be stepped. Use a pencil to first mark the position and to make placement of glue more precise. When glued, clamp until set. 4. Take the parts shown here and glue them together. Please note the location of the hex indent. Clamp until set. 5. Fit the bolt, washer and nut into position. 6. Take the parts shown here and assemble in this orientation. Note that these are made as pairs, with the base fitting on one pair being opposite to the other pair. 7. Sit the moveable portion of the slip onto the baseboard and use the washers and wing nuts to secure. This portion of course is adjustable to the width of the keel. The other smaller parts, including the end stops and bulkhead clamps are fitted by simply pushing and twisting them onto the stepped edges of the keep clamp. You can use any of the features seen here in any way you like in order to assure yourself that everything is in alignment. A small tray at the front of the slip can be used for the unused parts, or modelling tools. Enjoy the build and your next project you build with it! In all, a nice and easy slip to build and one with quite a lot of flexibility when it comes to the shape of the vessels that can be constructed on it. The slip is designed for models with a keel length of 600mm, but 800mm can be built within it too. Maximum keel width is 5mm, according to Hobbyzone, but I'm sure you could squeeze another millimetre out of it. To give you an idea about keel thickness, the 1/72 HMS Vanguard from Amati/Victory Models has a 5mm thick keel, and that model is designed for a bigger slip than this! SO, in short, you should find this perfectly capable of handling just about every project up to a maximum of 800mm keel length. My sincere thanks to Hobbyzone for sending this out for review here on MSW. To purchase directly, click the link at the top of the article, or head over to your local Hobbyzone stockist.

Any progress here? Lovely looking build so far.

Hi all, All members of MSW are entitled to publish their kit reviews in this area. It isn't just a privilege for staff members. We want a collective voice as to the evaluation of kits, both old and new. However, there are some very simple guidelines that really must be adhered to in order for this section to work as designed. Also, all kits under review must be un-started. This is the only balanced way to get an overall initial feel for the kit. Kit reviews must: Give an initial assessment of the overall package with regards to standard and presentation. All materials must be assessed for quality, including ply and other timbers including strip and dowel, fittings, photo-etch, rigging blocks and cord, sail materials, decals (where supplied), cast materials including cannon and culverins etc, Kit design approach. An overall, personal assessment of the model construction and other interesting and pertinent things you note as you look through the plans, instructions and other drawing materials. Your review must contain clear photographs. Nothing hazy or fuzzy etc. Please do not use this area for starting new topics asking questions about models that aren't under review. Where you do wish to ask a question about a review, then post it as a reply to the review topic, and hopefully those questions can be answered. This area isn't a general model kit discussion place. Please respect the intention of this area and keep other discussion within the other relevant forum areas. Thanks, Jim

Moving this topic as not a review.

1:72 Ragusian Galley 18thCentury MarisStella Available from MarisStella for €147 plus shipping The Republic of Ragusa was a maritime republic centred on the city of Dubrovnik (Ragusa in Italian, German and Latin; Raguse in French) in Dalmatia (today in southernmost Croatia) that carried that name from 1358 until 1808. It reached its commercial peak in the 15th and the 16th centuries, before being conquered by Napoleon's French Empire and formally annexed by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1808. It had a population of about 30,000 people, out of whom 5,000 lived within the city walls. Its Latin motto was "Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro", which means "Liberty is not well sold for all the gold". The Dubrovnik galley was an integral part of Dubrovnik's war fleet, which in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, had only a few small warships (at most ten), operated solely because of frequent harassment and looting by pirates and cargo ships at that time. The Galleys were stationed in Dubrovnik and Mali Ston. Other Croatian coastal centres had this type of ship, along the eastern Adriatic coast: Kotor, Omis, Senj, and others. The Dubrovnik galley was driven by both wind and rowers (Galiot), who were both sailors and soldiers, as was appropriate, but there were also condemned criminals that rowed the State ships. Their main feature was their speed, and they were used for military, police and customs purposes, courier services, and for the transport of diplomats and senior civil servants. They were also used for the transportation of goods at the expense of the State. The kit MarisStella’s kit range is currently undergoing an upgrade, and most certainly in terms of their boxing. This one comes to me in its original incarnation, with a deep midnight blue thin card lid with all printing and imagery in gold ink. This does look quite stark but very attractive. I’m told that the new appearance will have finished model imagery on the box. MarisStella have said they will send over examples of the upgraded kits for us to look at on MSW, so we’ll get to see those changes first-hand in the next months. This release comes in a fairly weighty box, and lifting the lid off, we are first presented with a product leaflet, sheet of printed flags and a thick 122-page manual which is spiral-bound. All of these items sit on a cardboard tray which when lifted out, reveals the kit materials below. A large cardboard cover first needs to be lifted out to access the kit itself. Inside, several bundles of timber and dowel sit on top of two laser-cut sheets of plywood for the main bulkhead and keel construction, two sheets of laser-cut walnut, several fittings packets, another very thin sheet of laser-cut ply, one fret of photo-etch brass parts, pre-sewn sails, and a packet of rigging cord. Apart from the main sheets of ply and the timber bundles, all other elements within this kit are packed into clear sleeves that are either stapled closed or heat-sealed. My sample arrived with everything in good order. This POB model is designed very traditionally and is constructed around a 3-part false keel and a set of 15 bulkheads. The ply used for this is 4mm thick, and like all other parts on the main two constructional ply sheets, everything is very cleanly laser-cut, with an absolute minimum of scorching. One thing I noticed on all of the ply sheets is the laser-engraving and marking of where other components will fit to. I quite like this approach as it helps to ensure correct and precise construction throughout. That engraving has also been put to good use on the display stand elements that can be seen on these two sheets. These are also supplied in English, Italian and Croatian text, and contain a little engraved scroll work. You may opt for something a little glitzier with your build, but then again you may be perfectly happy with the parts that MarisStella provide here. In between the various bulkheads, some 8mm² lengths of lime have been included that can be cut to length and wedged in to keep everything straight. I believe some of the other kits have lengths of dowel which slot continuously through the bulkheads. I would’ve liked to have seen similar here, but at least the timber is included. It is also suggested that this material be cut up and used to create the bow and stern filler blocks, although you might like to use balsa for this purpose. Two sheets of walnut are supplied, one of which (the narrower and thicker sheet) contains the keel components. Although you will need to cut the rabbet into these, the positions for this are engraved onto the parts and the manual clearly shows how this is done. The other walnut sheet is lighter in colour and thinner than the previous, containing parts for the gun carriages, rail cap strips, cabin bulkhead, and transom, channels etc. Again, and where appropriate, more engraving is present for constructional accuracy. All walnut sheet timber is of high quality with good grain that shouldn’t split etc. A very thin sheet of birch ply is included for the head rails, transom and cabin door detail etc. All strip stock in this kit is also of the same standard, with numerous bundles of timbers of different sizes and types, including European Walnut for the hull planking. There is some natural variation in the colour of the walnut planks, so I would look at possibly grouping them, so wood of the same tone is used the same for both sides. This model also has a single-planked hull, unlike the double-planked that we so commonly see these days. However, the deck is double-planked, and the planks sit directly atop of the bulkheads, with no thin ply deck to lay first. The second layer of deck planking is supplied as beech strips. Various lengths and diameters of dowel are included, and all supplied in walnut. These are tightly grained and have excellent natural colour. This is one model that really would benefit from having sails fitted, just to highlight the elegance of the shape. A feature of MarisStella kits is that the sail material is pre-sewn. By this, I mean that the shapes are lightly printed to a piece of pre-aged sheet and the inner stitched lines are present. All you need to do is to cut out the sails and sew the outer edges. Sail colour is akin to natural linen and looks good to use without any further ageing trickery. Two anchor packs are included. These contain a metal anchor that is painted black, a separate walnut stock, and some brass bandings that would look nice if they were also blackened. Another pack contains 3-eye rigging blocks, single blocks, eyelets, belaying pins, and parrel beads. There is some colour variation in the block colour and all look to be made from walnut. One length of 1mm brass wire is included in one fittings pack, as are two 4mm cannon for the bow. These are finished with an antique patina and may benefit from being blackened in some way. I would use Gunze Dark Iron paint which is then burnished to an iron finish. A reasonably thick sheet of photo-etch parts is also included, containing head rail decoration, transom decoration, rudder straps etc. Quality is again excellent, with reasonably thin tags to remove the parts from their positions. Tag positions are the only clean-up that will be required with these parts. A single packet is included that contains four spools of natural finish rigging cord in 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1mm diameters. One length of 1.25mm is included separately, as is a 1mm length of black rope. Every vessel of course needs a flag and both this and a pennant are supplied here, laser-printed in colour onto paper. You’ll need to furl these realistically and they could’ve done with been thinner, possibly from tissue paper, but will still look very attractive when flown. Instructions This 121-page spiral-bound A4 manual also has a clear plastic cover to protect it. Each of the constructional stages are illustrated by generally uncluttered CAD line drawings that are annotated in English, Italian and Croatian. Some drawing details are a little small, such as the eyelet positions, footplates etc. so maybe magnify those a little. A very comprehensive section on making the sails is also included. Illustrated construction takes place over 83 pages, and this is then followed by the building instruction text and list of parts. Plan A large single sheet plan is included that contains pretty much every dimension/measurement you'll need and the line drawing quality is excellent. To prevent any piracy, I have only included a portion of that plan here, with no bulkhead shapes. Conclusion A very nice kit of a very unusual subject. I’ve seen so many model ships of antiquity, but this is one that seems to bridge the gap by being of a generally ancient style, whilst being an 18thCentury vessel. MarisStella’s design is nice and easy to follow and is coupled with high quality materials and drawings. In all, an excellent package that will provide many hours of pleasure for a very reasonable price. As this is single-planked, I would recommend this to intermediate modellers. My sincere thanks to MarisStella for sending this kit out for review on Model Ship World. To purchase directly, click the link at the top of the page, or head over to your local MarisStella stockist.

At least you only have one mast! 🤣

Nice to see this being built. Always fancied doing a cross section, and this appears to be coming along real nice.

Be careful with assembly. There are a couple of little areas that may not be too clear. Wojciech has asked me to do a full step-by-step of this build, and it should be online within the next week. All will be shown in technicolour, including parts orientation etc.

We have more to come yet: Small building slip Professional building slip SECRET product...not released yet. I'll publish when allowed to The building slips will be presented as full build guides too.

No, I was sent this to test for myself and publish here. You did of course see that I mentioned that there were similar products available, yes?

Electric Plank Bender Hobbyzone Catalogue # HX-GDL1 Available from Hobbyzone for £20.63 (as of 10-7-18) There are numerous ways of bending those awkward planks that we regularly see at stern and bow, including soaking in water/macerating fluid that breaks down fibres, and then twisting. You can of course use a plank nipper, such as that from Amati, drum roller such as the Mantua release, or you can use an electric plank bender. The latter isn’t exactly a new way of shaping your planks to the required curve, but this new release from Hobbyzone is certainly a quality and affordable way to achieve it. Hobbyzone’s electric plank bender is packed into a sturdy plywood box which is then heavily wrapped in plastic film onto which the product label is affixed. Once the packing is removed, the lid of the box is lifted via a finger hole in the centre of the lid. Inside, we have the electricplank bending tool itself, lying alongside the curved forming tool. The electric part of this is a 240v unit and comes with a European standard 2-pin plug. For my tests, I converted this with a 3-pin UK travel adapter. I think that the basis for the plank bender is possibly a soldering iron or similar, but instead of a pointed tip, this unit has been fitted with a circular brass head that is the correct size to roll around the smaller of the curves on the forming block. Inside the bottom of the box is a sheet that explains that your planks must first be soaked, and that you may well experience some smoke emanating from the unit for the first 10 minutes after the very first use. Note also that the underside of the lid has a rest for sitting the electric tool whilst not in use. *CAUTION* NEVER LEAVE THE PLANKIG TOOL UNATTENDED WHILST POWERED**….simple safety tip! The forming tool is made from very thick MDF and contains two different sized scoop profiles, plus a gentler curving sweep. You can of course use different sections of these profiles to greater or lesser degrees, and it does seem very similar to the formers in other manufacturer’s products. To test, I first soaked my limewood planks for about 30 to 40 mins in plain cold water, and then with the forming iron fully hot, the plank was laid across the shallow curve and the iron gradually rolled into it. The timber formed itself into the curve very quickly and with minimal physical effort for me to achieve it. The tool was gradually rolled until the wood dried out and the curve remained. For the deeper curves, I first placed only a short length of the timber into the former, and then rolled the iron, pushing the timber into the former a little extra each time until I had achieved the full curve. I did experience a little scorching on the internal area, but nothing too major. I think that longer soaking for more pronounced curved would minimise this even more, but the plank shaped superbly. Resting the iron, whilst hot, onto the stand, caused almost zero scorching from the iron, so I have no qualms about using the stand for just that. Conclusion A superb tool at a very reasonable price. This currently retails for just over £20, minus shipping, and is very easy to use. The whole lots packs neatly into that plywood box too, so no loose tools lying around. I couldn’t see a wattage listed on the unit, and I don’t think this is currently available in anything other than 220/240v, but it could be worthwhile approaching Hobbyzone to clarify that.

Not at all because it will be written by individuals and not on behalf of MSW.

Before any planking can be contemplated, those bulkheads need to be faired in. This is probably one of my least favourite jobs, but at least with the Drakkar, it's not too big a task. To do this, I use a coarse sanding stick. This has some flexibility and curves nicely to the shape of the hull. I think this was about 2hrs work in total. A plank of Lime from my Mary Rose kit was used to check the curves all around the hull and to highlight any areas that weren't sanded enough. There are two sheets of planks for this model, one for port and one for starboard. There is a difference in the sheets as one plank for the starboard side has a riser for the rudder attachment. Using the plans, each plan was numbered and then an arrow added to indicate the bow. The planks on this model are all pre-shaped and laser-cut from very, very thin ply. If the fairing isn't done correctly, then the planks will look wavy. This was my worst fear with this model. First of all, the two inboard planks have a slight bevel added to the inner edge so that they mate up properly to the keel. Each of the inboard planks are now fitted using III and some very careful measurements to ensure the are the same on both sides. Some shaping of the ends had to be done so the planks matched the curve that had been drawn on the keel previously. Adding one plank per side and alternating each side as I went, the first four per side were added. Now, I know many don't like CA (superglue), but it's ideal for spotting things into position before proceeding with wood glue. If measurements are out, then the CA joint can be cracked apart and re-positioned. With the first four in place, I painted the interior of the hull with wood glue to strengthen it. I hope to have all planking done for the next update and then to look at fitting the decks.

I remember reading this review in the journal, but it's nice to see it here in colour. An unusal subject choice. Plenty of scope for finishing and weathering too.

Lovely work. Can't wait to start mine.

Nice to have you with us, Ron. Paper, wood, whatever....please share your work with us.

Nice video and a lovely kit. Mine arrived today too.

Waterline Marker Hobbyzone Catalogue # HZ-PW Available from Hobbyzonefor 25.00zł (£5.21 as of 6/6/2018) If you’re new to the hobby and setting up a list of essentials for purchase, or if you need to replace your current waterline marker for some reason, then Hobbyzone has a pretty inexpensive way of doing this. In case you’ve never heard of Hobbyzone, they are a Polish company who produce some excellent workshop workbench modules to store your tools and other items, all with magnets which lock the individual units together. This range is totally flexible and can grow as your own needs must. Maybe you have heard of Hobbyzone but didn’t realise that they now have a set of products aimed specifically at our hobby? For our first look at this range of tools, I thought the waterline marker was a good introduction. Hobbyzone products tend to be made from MDF parts, which are CNC routed to very fine tolerances, which fit superbly. I can say this because I have been a customer of them for about 3yrs now. The waterline marker is packed into a clear plastic sleeve wrap with a couple of product labels. Opening the packet, you’ll note that all MDF parts are held together with elastic bands. A packet of hardware is included, as is a single instruction sheet. No tools re needed for this except for clamps. Clean-up of parts isn’t necessary. A quick test fit of parts shows that everything does indeed fit snugly, with just a little playfor the glue joints. For glue, I use Titebond III which has a relatively quick grab time and sets with an amazingly strong joint. I first glue the two upright parts together and leave for 15 minutes before then gluing this assembly to the base. Any excess glue is removed with the corner of a steel rule. One of those upright parts has a channel milled into it for the pencil unit to slide along. Assembling the pencil holder is very simple indeed. Two MDF parts are supplied, and one of these has a V-channel machined into it for holding the pencil, and holes for the bolts. The other part has those holes, but the exterior is machined to accommodate the hex head of the bolts. The bolts are first slotted into this piece and the v-slot dropped into position. The two parts are now fitted to the slot on the upright assembly and the washers and wingnuts used to secure. Before tightening, a pencil is added to the unit, and the wingnuts tightened evenly. It’s a good idea to use a short pencil for this as you want to keep the waterline parker relatively close to your boat/ship so that there’s no flexing of the pencil. That’s it! This tool can be adjusted for heights between 45mm and 225mm, so certainly big enough for most applications. Another real bonus here is the price. At just over a Fiver sterling, then this can’t be beat! My sincere thanks to Hobbyzone for kindly sending out this item for review here on MSW. Hobbyzone products can be bought directly or through one of their global distributors. Tell them you saw this review on Model Ship World

What a great looking little boat. I love that planking.

That looks just amazing. I'd have loved to have seen it commercially available.

That is very, very pretty. Lovely workmanship too.

Hahahahaha! Maybe.....

As promised, here's the start of my build. The weather here is way too hot for me to do my usual airbrushing of plastic models, so it was just the opportunity I needed to crack open this lovely kit, from Amati. First of all, I removed all of the parts from the thick ply sheet. These parts are the keel, bulkheads, dragon head mounting post....and a part not on the schedule. This is a replacement for the curved tail. The original keel has quite a simplified shape which is a little unsatisfying, and instead of reworking the keel, Amati has included a reworked section for the modeller to use, should they wish. As this is heaps better than the keel shape, I carefully marked out the new joint onto the keep and then sawed off the section. The new shape was now grafted into place with Titebond III adhesive. Here are the bulkheads. These will of course need fairing slightly when fitted. Notice how the middle frame #6 has a stepped profile to aid locating the shaped planks. There's no real need to remove the char from any of these edges. After test fitting the bulkheads to the keel, it became obvious that the joints were way too tight. To correct this problem, I ran a coarse sanding stick a few times through the slots on both the keel and the frames. As the stick is slightly spongy and will compress a little, it only took a few seconds to remove the required amount of material. Before I can fit the bulkheads to the keel, I needed to draw the line on the keel to where the planks would terminate. Amati suggests tracing the shape from their lower half of their plan sheet, containing a keep profile. As this was only a parts list section, I cut the shape from the plan and transferred it to the keel where I then used a pencil to draw around the paper template. I found the stern keel to differ very slightly from the shape of the plan, but it didn't present any real issues. Each bulkhead, except for #2 and #10 were now glued into position using Titebond III aliphatic adhesive, along with the dragon's head mounting post. The reason I left the two bulkheads unglued is because these will need most shaping as the planks sweep steeply upwards here. They will be rigid enough to be faired with the other bulkheads, but allowing me to remove to finely tune them. At this stage, note the tops of the bulkheads aren't flush with the keel. This doesn't matter, as confirmed in Amati's instructions, as the deck more or less sits on top of the bulkheads and not the keel itself. One thing I noted was the curved notches in the two false deck sections. These needed to be squared off so they would sit to the frames properly. I now sit the two decks in place, temporarily, whilst the bulkheads set. A quick check proves that assembly is nice and square. More soon as I then fair the bulkheads in readiness for planking....