thibaultron

1:120 USS Susquehanna
WoodyJOE
Available from WoodyJOE for ¥ 43,000 (approx. $400/£335)
 

 
USS Susquehanna, a sidewheel steam frigate, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the Susquehanna River, which rises in Lake Otsego in central New York and flows across Pennsylvania and the northeast corner of Maryland emptying into the Chesapeake Bay. Her keel was laid down by the New York Navy Yard in 1847. She was launched on 5 April 1850 and was commissioned on 24 December 1850, Captain John H. Aulick in command. After completing her trials, which she began in January 1851, the side-wheel frigate sailed on 8 June for the Far East to become flagship of the East India Squadron under the command of Commodore John H. Aulick. Aulick's orders included instructions to visit Japan and negotiate a treaty opening diplomatic relations with that country. After presenting demands and an official letter from President Millard Fillmore to the Japanese government on 14 July, the American warships departed on 17 July. On 12 February 1854, Susquehanna returned with the squadron to Japan as part of Perry's show of force, resulting in the signing of the Convention of Kanagawa on 31 March 1854. 

During the American Civil War, the ship was assigned to the Atlantic Blockading Squadron and sailed for Hampton Roads. Late in August, Susquehanna participated in the joint Army-Navy expedition to Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, which captured Fort Clark and Fort Hatteras on 29 August. During September, she captured two British schooners: Argonaut on 13 September and Prince Alfred on 28 September. In the same month, she also took two Confederate schooners as well: San Juan on 28 September and Baltimore the following day. Following the end of the American Civil War, Susquehanna brought American delegates to Veracruz bay in Mexico during the destruction of the Second Mexican Empire in order to open up relations with the United States backed Mexican president Benito Juárez. When the Susquehanna found out that the acting imperial ruler Maximilian I of Mexico had decided not to abdicate, the ship turned around to head home 1866. The ship ended her active service as flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron. Decommissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 14 January 1868, Susquehanna was laid up until she was sold for scrapping on 27 September 1883 to E. Stannard of New York City.
 
The kit
This is the very latest release from Japanese company, WoodyJOE. For those of you with Facebook, WoodyJOE has shown some of the development of this kit over the last months, with their finished model designed to show a finished ship on one side and the construction on the other…presumably for model fair display purposes. The box itself is sort of average in size for a model with these dimensions, but it is certainly heavy! Packed into an attractive but generic nautical-themed box, a product label for Susquehanna is affixed to the lid in a way that it looks printed on. 

Upon opening the box, the first thing to check out is the colour-printed instruction manual. This 32-page, stapled booklet breaks the construction down into 36 stages, but most of those have many sub-stages, effectively creating well over 200-300 sequences. Rigging illustrations are supplied too, and they are beautifully clear to understand. Photo annotation also refers to the specific part number, whether it be strip wood, sheet parts or metal elements. A full parts list is supplied at the beginning of the manual, as well as suggested paints etc. All of this is in Japanese though, befitting a kit that’s probably aimed for their home market. 










A series of sheet plans is included for just about everything you will need, such as hull profiles, fitting positions, masting etc.



WoodyJOE kindly popped the Tamiya gearbox unit into my sample. This isn’t a standard part in this kit, but it is of course designed to specifically fit this unit, should you wish to purchase it extra. As with Tamiya products, you are expected to build this itself, and it is supplied as a mini-kit, complete with electric motor and a small tube of grease for lubrication.


Another item to be purchased separately is this battery box. A relatively inexpensive item costing only a £/$ or so.

Now, onto the various fittings. These have been supplied stapled to two sheets of card and certainly keeps everything neat and in order. Each packet of parts is also neatly labelled (in Japanese). Here you will find that parts are generally cast in white metal, but with very good definition in the most part. There are a few lines on the cannon that look like an original 3D-printed master wasn’t fully cleaned up, but this is easy to deal with. 








Instead of white metal, WoodyJOE have opted to include the belaying pins as cast-brass items which must be removed from their casting block and cleaned up prior to installation. 

Other bagged items include wire, ferrules, varying chain sizes, pins, rigging pins, etc.




A number of parts in this kit are labelled in the same fashion as those on the card sheet but are bagged instead. 

This is where you will find spools of rigging cord that are clearly numbered in reference to the rigging drawings. 

Ughhhhh!! I really don’t like these! Here are the plastic rigging blocks. For me, there’s only one place to store these. However, if they don’t bother you, then they are actually very nicely moulded, but you will need to paint them appropriately. 


Plastic also features on the ship’s launches, with the basic hulls being supplied. These are painted though, and will be fitted out with timber, so it’s not a deal-breaker. The mouldings are also superb. 

You will find numerous timber elements also individually bagged and labelled too, clearly referencing their use within the instruction manual. This applies to the various lengths and diameters of dowel and strip. A quick look at these shows the superior quality of all timber. Some of the finest I’ve seen in a kit.






Another sheet of card has several packages stapled to it that contain various sheets of laser-cut timber parts. Notice parts here for the launches, mast tops, cannon bases, channels.




A second and third packet of laser-cut parts contains the clearly identifiable paddle wheels and stern rails amongst other parts that are spread over numerous sheets.



Now we come onto the sheet materials, with this first sheet containing the parts for the stern. Note the engraved bevel marks to help you shape these properly.


A large sheet of high-quality ply contains the hull bulkheads. In my opinion, there should be more of these, especially on a single-planked model. Laser cutting is excellent.


An equally large sheet holds other key hull components. Here, as well as more bulkheads, you can see the false keel and long ply parts that will further help align the bulkheads and provide further rigidity. 


It will come as no surprise to see that there are a few sheets of photo-etch (PE) parts in this release. These contain everything from gratings to deck structure elements, and also those large gun swivel mount circles that you see at both bow and stern areas of the ship.


 
 
Conclusion
Of course, this is such an unusual subject to tackle and in many ways has some unusual construction techniques that aren’t typically seen in today’s kits, such as the stern that is built up from slices. It would have been good to see the Tamiya gearbox kit added as standard, as it’s generally a very low-cost item to purchase by itself (around £11 at time of writing), but of course, not all modellers would want to use this anyway. Personally, I think this model is aimed at those with some experience, and I wouldn’t recommend a single-planked hull for anyone without the prerequisite skillset to tackle it. As the bulkheads are perhaps spaced a little too far apart for my liking, you’ll need to ensure that you don’t create any sag between them when planking, giving an uneven finish to the hull. Another thing I would have liked to have seen would be copper plates supplied for the lower hull instead of notes on painting it in that colour. Even a roll of self-adhesive copper tape would’ve been a nice touch. A real oddity is the inclusion of plastic rigging blocks. This is probably my biggest single gripe with this kit, and I guarantee those will be thrown away and replaced with something more suitable in timber, possibly from Master Korabel. Now, that’s the gripes out of the way, and in no way do I want you to think that this isn’t a lovely kit to look at. It genuinely is. At 862mm long, it’s certainly not a small model, despite the 1:120 scale, and it definitely has to be the best thought out model I’ve seen in ages with regards to material identification and presentation. Everything is designed to make the modeller’s life as easy as possible. The drawings are also excellent, as well as the photographic instruction manual. Of course, all text is in Japanese, which does sort of indicate that their primary market is Japan. There are ways of translating this, such as with smartphone apps that will translate the image when you hover your phone camera over. With regard to the instruction manual stages, I do think many of them are fairly self-explanatory anyway. But…the smartphone translator app is free! 
 
In all, a high-quality package with excellent timber and some very nice fittings. The whole lot will build up into an outstanding finished model that is most certainly very different from your regular sail ships. If you get the chance to get one, I doubt you’d be disappointed.




 
My sincere thanks to WoodyJOE for sending this new release out for review here on Model Ship World. To purchase directly, click the link at the top of the article.
 
 

 

Today was a fairly pleasant day weather-wise so I got some more work done on the right side interior of the shop. Since my last post I have rounded the back right corner inside and added a side window (also 36"x36") and have paneled around the corner up to that side window. Today I used my last sheet of donated paneling and then trimmed out the side window to match the back one:

As I've mentioned prior, I'm using all available wood on hand if it is useable, rather than buying, so things may look a bit "pieced together", but this is a budget-guided project, not a Taj Mahal!! I've got to make a landfill trip with the util. trailer to dump some rotted scrap lumber if the facility is still open to the public; won't know 'til I call, I guess. Then, on the way back stop at Lowe's and buy some new sheets of paneling; I need 13 to finish the inside walls but may not be able to do that in one trip, we'll see! Then a decision on whether or not to use lathe strips between the panels joints (rather $$$) or simply mix up a batch of Dunham ROCK HARD powdered wood filler and putty all the joints for sanding with the belt sander. I'm heavily leaning on Durham's - I want the walls to look decent, but certainly not some dainty ladies powder room, either!

I'd be careful about the effects of alcohol on paper. The acrylic paints provided work very well. But, as you say, you can always try out different things, given the extra time available.
 
Clare

Hi Clare,
 
thanks for your explanation.
 
 
Hmm, perhaps it's a goed idea to use colors which work with different dilutions. I have some Airbrush colors which work with alcohol and some oilcolors, I can try. WIth the actual crisis I have enough time at home to test.

Thank you Druxey. I'm just hoping it will continue that way.
 
Christian, the instructions have you pre-paint everything with color number 03, which is Naples Yellow. I found that it worked best to thin it down, though I don't have a specific formula. It's just thin enough so that it goes on somewhat transparent, so you can continue to see the laser-etched details through the paint. This needs to dry thoroughly before you paint over with the wood colored mixture. I recommend letting it dry over night. This makes a kind of a primer coat, so that the wood colored mixture can go on, well thinned down, without beading on the surface of the paper. 
 
The instructions then have you mix paints in a given ratio. The paint colors are 15, 29, and 30, which is Raw Sienna, Burnt Umber, and Black, and the mixture is given as 6:0.25:0.5. To make it simpler, I multiplied it all by 4, so it's 24:1:2. I pre-mixed this into a mini paint pot - the kind that comes in a strip and has an attached lid. These are only something like 0.1 or 0.2 oz each. But, it doesn't take that much paint to cover the model.
 
I filled on up with paint mixture and then I mixed up a couple with a smaller amounts of paint using slight variations of the main ratio. Most parts are painted with the main ratio, while others are painted with the alternate ratio, so there is a very slight variation in colors of the wood.
 
I didn't try to use the wood grain technique they showed in the book. It didn't seem necessary to me at this scale.
 
When I applied the wood colored paint, I applied it very well thinned down, so it goes on a kind of a wash. You need to practice on some of the scrap paper in the kit. The amount of thinning really affects the application of color. The mixture looks dark tan, but thinned down, the wood looks more of a golden brown. 
 
You don't want to re-brush over an area too much, or you'll start to strip away the undercoat you painted earlier. If the color is too light, you can go back in another 24 hours and go over it again. You can also do this to add a little color variation across the parts.
 
Of course, you'll want the brush strokes to go along the direction of the imagined wood grain.
 
The most difficult part is probably that some parts simulate many planks all together. You can paint the whole thing at one time and then go back later and apply a thin wash to some of the planks to make them slightly darker, indicating a natural variation in wood sources.
 
Clare

Looks very convincing, Clare!

Hi Clare,
 
I will follow your log with great interest. I have both cogs of shipyard in my stash and will start this weekend with the cog "Wütender Hund" ("Mad dog"). YOur log will be a fantastic help. Can you give little bit more information about painting the model. The hints in the description of shipyard are not really informative
 
Regards Christian

I finished page 11 of the instructions with the completion of the lower planking. But, I found that there is a slight disconnect in the instructions.
 
Here's where I am so far on the planking. 

Planking has been going quite well. The planks are very well shaped, and go into place very easily, laying right where they need to go.  The planks are marked with a thin black line as a guide for laying the next planking strake in clinker fashion.



The disconnect I'm describing is simply that instructions don't show the rest of the hull planking that needs to go on in between pages 11 and 12. 
The last planks I added here are planks 70 and 71, which make up this last strake. 
 
It appears that planks 72 through 74 make up the next two strakes, and these need to be added before continuing to the next page of instructions. Not a big deal, but it would have been nice if this were clearer in the instructions.
 
Clare

Thank you CDW, Druxey.
 
Druxey, it probably would be easier with a marker. I'm just in such a painting mode that I didn't even stop to think about that. Never heard of a "Pigma" marker before, so I had to look that up too. I'm going to have to try that out. Thanks!

Would 'painting' the nailheads be easier with a brown fine-tip Pigma marker pen? The wood effect looks really great, Clare!

It all looks fantastic so far, Clare. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Thanks James. I'm really enjoying it too. 

What unusual construction. Very much enjoying this build.

I managed to make some time to work on the Bremen Cog this week.
 
On other Shipyard kits, the frames are all covered with a first layer of "planking", what a lot of people call "skin". On this kit, only the lower part of the hull is covered. On the upper part, there are only stiffeners.

 
I already test fit the internal floor and walls and assembled the longitudinal beams that will support the main deck. Not sure why so much interior is present. There is only one small hath on deck, and even if it's left open, you wouldn't be able to see more than just the area around the mast. I actually took this photo before adding the hull stiffeners or lower hull covering.

 
I started painting using the paints included in the kit in the mixture described in the instructions. It's actually something of a two step process, as you first have to paint the parts with the light colored paint. It's simply labeled 03 on the jar, but the manufacturer, Renesans, says it's Naples Yellow.  I found that it works best to thin it down and then paint the paper with it and let it dry for at least 24 hours. 

 
I didn't do such a great job with the paint job on the interior. It was my test/practice area and isn't going to be very visible anyone, so I wasn't too worried about it. In the instructions, the builder clearly painted all the laser-etched nail heads. I didn't think I was going to be able to do these, but I ended up giving it a shot later on. Only thing was that I didn't decide to paint the nail heads until I had completed the interior area.

In the last photo, you can see that the nail heads turned out okay. At least I thought so. It took a little time, but wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. I just had to use a very fine brush and dab. 
 
 

Here the first mistake I made on this model. There are tabs along the edge of parts 37, 38, and 39. It wasn't very clear to me, but these tabs are supposed to be glued to the outside of the inner keel piece. I needed to correct this by adding just a little thickness to the edge of the inner keel piece, so i cut strips of excess card stock and glued them into place. The photos show just the first strip.

 

 
Finally, here are some shots of the first of the planking.

That puts me somewhere on page 11 of the instructions. A long ways to go, but I ran across someone else's build log on a paper modeler's forum and was inspired by their build and the fact that it took them only a little more than a month to complete it. I can't imagine my build will be so quick, but it's nice to know it's possible.
 
Next time I post a build update, I should have the main hull planking completed.
 
Clare
 
 

Hi VTHokiEE, looking over this kit, I don't see anything that you have to cut out, except for the flags. Everything else is laser-cut, so you just have to cut the tiny tabs that hold each part to the sheet. 
 
If you really like lighthouses, then some of the Shipyard lighthouse kits will give you some good experience with the laser-cut kits, but I don't really think it's necessary. I did build their Crowdy Head lighthouse kit, which was a pretty neat kit though.
 

Very quick build, and you do get a good taste of what the Shipyard kits are like.
 
Clare
 
 

I had started the V-108 as well, but stalled. I wasn’t a huge fan of all the cuts as well. Is there any significant cutting with these laser cut kits? I’ve been hesitant to buy a paper model because I didn’t really know what to expect (and I probably should try something smaller like a lighthouse first).
 
I’m excited to follow your build along!

Will probably get bumped to somewhere very close to the top of the queue -- along with finishing the MK Kanonen Jolle, the Okumuto Hannah kit, any number of 1:33 card planes, and my full-size Sassafras 12 canoe. Whew!

Chris, are you going to build the kit, or just do a review? Hope you build it. I'd love to see it going together.
 
As for the Bremen Cog review, I'm thinking there is enough there to tell people what they want to know. 
 
One thing I'll add here, and as a disclaimer I should point out that this is kind of a plug for a company that I do some work for, but I kind of talked the owner of Ages of Sail into carrying the two laser-cut cog kits, plus a big order for their new wooden kit.  So if anyone is considering building any of these, please consider buying from Ages of Sail!
 
Now, on to the build...
 
To start with, I used a scalpel to cut the needed parts from the laser-cut sheet. The instructions show a double-edged razor blade, but that seems a little dangerous. The scalpel works quite well.

It is interesting that they laser-cut scarf joints. They look great, but they will get covered over later in the build. At this stage, I used simple Elmer's wood glue for these parts. It allows me some adjustment of the parts before the glue sets. In the photo above, it's a bit hard to tell, but the bow end is on the left side.
 

The next step was to fit all the bulkheads and hull stiffeners into place. All the parts slip easily into place and no glue was used at this stage – I wanted to test fit everything first. Plus, I love how quickly the hull takes shape at this early stage.
 


As you can probably see, once I was happy that I got everything into the correct places, I started adding glue to the joints. The close spacing of the bulkheads already gives the model a very solid feel, though the bulkheads at the ands are very delicate and they will buckle very easily, so a lot of care is needed in handling it yet.
 
The above photo doesn't show the vertical stiffeners that are added next. There are two on either side of the keel. You can see the slots for them in the bottom of the bulkheads. There is also a piece that is added to the outer edge of the lower bulkheads. You can see the notches for them in the edge of the bulkheads below the lower deck. You'll see this in later photos.
 

With the bulkheads all glued into place, you'll notice an interior space taking shape. This will be deal with in my next post. This takes me into page 6 of the 52-page kit instructions.
 
The instructions here discuss their method of painting to give the model a wood-like appearance.
 
Clare
 
 

You can reply to the thread I started. I'm sure folks wouldn't mind seeing more.
 
That's the kit that is on its way -- stuck in Liège, Belgium, at the moment. 🤔

Chris,
Not a problem. I thought about posting in the review section. If it's editable, I actually have more photos of the contents I can add, as well as marketing photos from Shipyard. 
 
Robert, CDW,
This really does seem to be a pretty awesome kit. I've built fully laser-cut wooden kits like the Japanese boats from Woody Joe, and it's a bit like that, but with parts that are more flexible than wood. The 1/72 scale keeps the model on the small side. But, with all the parts and laser-scribed features, I can tell it will be a very detailed looking model.
 
My other paper projects have stalled. I have the 1/96 HMS Mercury and V-108 Torpedo Boat are sitting idly by. I'll get back to them both eventually, but they require a lot of cutting of parts. This was an opportunity to try one of Shipyard's laser-cut kits. I'd been drawn to their Dutch pinnace Papegojan and their HMS Wolf kits. But, when this opportunity came up, I had to jump at the chance. 
 
I'll post shortly about the actual construction, which is well under way. What I can say right now is that it's a lot of fun to see something come together so quickly and easily!
 
Chris, I'm positive the Wütender Hund is going to be just as amazing a kit as this one. And, there's a wooden version out now! Exact same kit, but in thin wood. Ages of Sail has ordered a bunch of them, and they should be in the shop soon.
 
Clare

I am amazed at what can be done in this medium. The detailing with this kit is outstanding and your skills really shine on this. Great work so far.
 

Clare, you did such a fine job on your introductory post that I took the liberty of copying it into the kit reviews section -- hope you don't mind!

What a beautiful kit.

Outstanding, Clare! BTW, a Wuetender Hund kit is on its way to South Carolina even as we speak -- review to follow soon after!

Earlier this year, I managed to acquire a relatively new kit produced by the Polish card model kit maker Shipyard. The kit is one of two that were released at least a year ago, maybe longer. Both kits represent medieval Cogs from the 1300s.
 
Unlike other Shipyard kits I've worked on (yes, I only finished one paper ship model kit, but started a couple of them) which were paper kits and required cutting out pre-printed parts, this is a laser-cut card stock kit. Everything is already cut out in this type of kit, and the model requires painting.
 
The kit I am building the kit listed by Shipyard as the Hanse Kogge - Bremen 1380. It is a 1/72 scale laser-cut kit based on the Bremen Cog. The completed model measures a little over 13" long and about 12.5" high. I decided to go ahead and take on this kit, though I have other projects, as the laser-cut design should make construction much simpler than the paper kits I've worked on. Ages of Sail, which is how I got my kit, sells this kit for about $125.
 
There is a second Cog kit available called the Wütender Hund. It's a slightly bigger kit, maybe a little more complex, that sells for about $10 more.
 
If you're interested in buying one, I'd really like to see other build logs! Here's a link to the kits on Ages of Sail: https://www.agesofsail.com/ecommerce/catalogsearch/result/index/?cat=72&q=Kogge
 
So, taking a look at the contents of the kit...

The laser-cut parts are in a cellophane envelope, individual carboard boxes keep things from knocking around in the main box and contain parts, paints, etc.

The instructions make up a full-color booklet filled with photos. There's very little text, and what there is in multiple languages. 


 
Parts that aren't part of the laser cut sheets are provided in a couple cardboard boxes that include rigging line, laser-cut blocks and deadeye sets, paints, brushes, dowels, metal accessories, etc.

The sail is pre-cut and pre-marked, but will need to be painted.
There are several sheets of laser-cut card stock in various thicknesses and finishes. Some of the sheets have a glossy finish. Here are just some of the sheets.
 

There are a couple sheets of plans included, which mostly cover rigging details.
 

This looks like a very good kit and I'm pretty happy to be able to work on it. Next time, I'll post the start of construction.
 
Clare