jwvolz

Thanks for linking my build in here Bob, I appreciate that. 

Good question actually as it did take some effort. Each loop is individually glued down with white glue and then a weight was put on until dry. I repeated with each subsequent layer. Wouldn't stay put otherwise and gave much better control of the lay. 
 
Thanks to everyone else as well, and the "likes".

I have completed the ratlines on both masts, which really wasn't too bad with the limited number of shrouds. Lantern boards were built and painted and secured with thin brass brackets seized to the shrouds per the plans. I also soldered up the topmast spreaders from brass wire and seized those to the shrouds as well, to keep the stay clear of the lantern boards. 
 
I didn't really document the booms being fabricated and assembled/painted, but their installation has begun. The hardware was made from various brass strips and wire. Their rigging has also begun with sheets and topping lifts run. I am using Bluejacket blocks, as Latham had internally stropped blocks, and Syren line for the running rigging. 

I have completed the ratlines on both masts, which really wasn't too bad with the limited number of shrouds. Lantern boards were built and painted and secured with thin brass brackets seized to the shrouds per the plans. I also soldered up the topmast spreaders from brass wire and seized those to the shrouds as well, to keep the stay clear of the lantern boards. 
 
I didn't really document the booms being fabricated and assembled/painted, but their installation has begun. The hardware was made from various brass strips and wire. Their rigging has also begun with sheets and topping lifts run. I am using Bluejacket blocks, as Latham had internally stropped blocks, and Syren line for the running rigging. 

Thanks for linking my build in here Bob, I appreciate that. 

In case you were asking what the modeler gets out of a more expensive kit, I'd say the answer is, "It depends." The very expensive kits generally contain better instructions, more historical accuracy, more detail, more complexity, more castings, and better quality materials. Mind you, though, that I have never bought a very expensive kit model. In my mind, it's something of a "Catch-22." I'm convinced that there are far more kits sold than are ever built. I really don't know why many modelers "build a stash" of un-built or half-built models. That said, buying a model you intend to build before you will have time to build it may make sense if the price is right, but, frankly, for some it appears to be something of a hoarding disorder. Few beginning or even intermediate modelers have the skill and experience to do justice to a $1,700 model. (And I'm sure somebody will say, "I do!" which is exactly why the manufacturers keep churning them out.) Those who have the skill and experience (not to mention the tools and machinery necessary to supplement "what comes in the box" of any kit to even begin to match the glossy colored picture on the kit box) will generally have long since abandoned assembling kits for building models, anyway. Kits have their place. They are ship modeling's "gateway drug" and some of the less challenging high quality kits (e.g. anything from Syren) are the very best way to gain skill and experience and at the same time end up with a beautiful model if it's done well, but it's generally the newer modelers who lust after a Victory or a Constitution and if ship models were restaurants, Victory and Constitution would be McDonald's and Starbucks.
 
As for the value of the finished product of an expensive kit, I doubt there are many who would pay $1,700 for an assembled ship model kit under any circumstances unless they were really conned into paying that much. In any event, people who are not knowledgeable collectors don't pay $1,700 for anything to set on their mantles and people who are knowledgeable collectors have no interest in paying much of anything for a model that is not a scratch-built historically accurate unique one-off example made by  a known top modeler to state of the art archival standards. (And more often than not such models are commissioned directly from the modeler.) 
 
Fine models are like fine art in terms of their value to those who might buy them. Kit models appeal to some who build for their own satisfaction alone, and that's fine, but unless they are done with a high level of skill, they are pretty much in the same category as paint-by-numbers oil paintings. They may look like the Mona Lisa if they are really done well, but most are just "Elvis" on black velvet in terms of monetary value.
 
By these comments, I certainly don't intend to denigrate those who build kits. I've built many, as everyone has over the years, but given the limitations of selling ship model kits as a business model, particularly with the inroads made by foreign "pirates" who steal the kit designers' intellectual property, it appears to me at least that the way the ship modeling game is trending over the long haul, the momentary impetus provided by "pandemic boredom" notwithstanding, is increasingly towards scratch-building a far less numerous output of unique "fine art"-level models. Kit manufacturers are struggling to realize a profit and the "aftermarket" vendors of pre-milled wood and fittings have been dropping like flies in recent years. Maybe that's why the smart kit fans all have "stashes," come to think of it!  
 
P.S.: If you want to see what can be done with a relatively simple quality model that's not particularly expensive... if you add after-market blocks and rigging line, etc., check out this beautiful job: 
 

Very beautiful work! I especially like the mix of painted structure with natural wooden accents.

Lovely work.
 
JR

Crisp and clean, so nice!
But how did you persuade the anchor cable to lay so naturally? It really looks, uhm, real.
 

Really beautiful, Joe!

I have completed the ratlines on both masts, which really wasn't too bad with the limited number of shrouds. Lantern boards were built and painted and secured with thin brass brackets seized to the shrouds per the plans. I also soldered up the topmast spreaders from brass wire and seized those to the shrouds as well, to keep the stay clear of the lantern boards. 
 
I didn't really document the booms being fabricated and assembled/painted, but their installation has begun. The hardware was made from various brass strips and wire. Their rigging has also begun with sheets and topping lifts run. I am using Bluejacket blocks, as Latham had internally stropped blocks, and Syren line for the running rigging. 

*MAJOR UPDATE*
 
I've gotten a lot done since the last update, but as usual have been remiss with the uploading. Some of the deck details such as windlass, fife rails and fore companionway finished awhile ago, and I've just gotten around to installing them. I've also built the box for the anchor chain, and installed the anchor cable which is made with Syren rope. 
 
Masts were turned in an electric drill to taper and the details were added with brass and stripwood. The bands are actually painted paper, which was easier consdiering the taper in that area. The spreader lifts were made form boxwood, as they will take some strain during rigging and I was not going to trust basswood with that task. 
 
The plans are just fantastic with regard to the mast fitting details, and there are still some things to add. 
 

Bit of an update.
 
The model is mounted on it's baseboard, which is made from rosewood, with two simple brass rods to hold it in place. Rare event for me to get this done so early, as I'm usually trying to carefully mount a fully rigged model! I also completed a number of deck fittings such as the main and fore hatches, the galley hatch, the wheel box, dory cradle, quarter bitts and a few other little things. It's fun to have to scratch build most all of this as MS only provides wood and plans. 

 

 

 

 

Shrouds are installed as well as all of the bowsprit rigging. All of the shrouds (masts and bowsprit) are served over their entire length. It seems to take forever and gets a bit tedious, but it does add a lot going to the effort to do it. The pin racks have also been installed between the deadeyes and seized. 

Worked on the stays and topmast hardware.
 
At least the stays are only served at either end, unlike full length on the shrouds; still a lot of serving. Made shackles from brass wire as well as the topmast crane. Bails for the stay and figure 8 links for the topmast stays are also made from brass wire. The small gray circles in a few of the pictures are Grandt line bolts/washers, used to simulate anywhere a bolt head would be. They add a lot in this scale. You can see them painted in a few of the other photos, especially on the mast cheeks. The Model Shipways plans are very good with this detail. 

I have completed the ratlines on both masts, which really wasn't too bad with the limited number of shrouds. Lantern boards were built and painted and secured with thin brass brackets seized to the shrouds per the plans. I also soldered up the topmast spreaders from brass wire and seized those to the shrouds as well, to keep the stay clear of the lantern boards. 
 
I didn't really document the booms being fabricated and assembled/painted, but their installation has begun. The hardware was made from various brass strips and wire. Their rigging has also begun with sheets and topping lifts run. I am using Bluejacket blocks, as Latham had internally stropped blocks, and Syren line for the running rigging. 

Rigged the spreaders and the spring stay. The spreader lifts are fully served and secured with lanyards. Lots and lots of serving...

I have completed the ratlines on both masts, which really wasn't too bad with the limited number of shrouds. Lantern boards were built and painted and secured with thin brass brackets seized to the shrouds per the plans. I also soldered up the topmast spreaders from brass wire and seized those to the shrouds as well, to keep the stay clear of the lantern boards. 
 
I didn't really document the booms being fabricated and assembled/painted, but their installation has begun. The hardware was made from various brass strips and wire. Their rigging has also begun with sheets and topping lifts run. I am using Bluejacket blocks, as Latham had internally stropped blocks, and Syren line for the running rigging. 

I have completed the ratlines on both masts, which really wasn't too bad with the limited number of shrouds. Lantern boards were built and painted and secured with thin brass brackets seized to the shrouds per the plans. I also soldered up the topmast spreaders from brass wire and seized those to the shrouds as well, to keep the stay clear of the lantern boards. 
 
I didn't really document the booms being fabricated and assembled/painted, but their installation has begun. The hardware was made from various brass strips and wire. Their rigging has also begun with sheets and topping lifts run. I am using Bluejacket blocks, as Latham had internally stropped blocks, and Syren line for the running rigging. 

I have completed the ratlines on both masts, which really wasn't too bad with the limited number of shrouds. Lantern boards were built and painted and secured with thin brass brackets seized to the shrouds per the plans. I also soldered up the topmast spreaders from brass wire and seized those to the shrouds as well, to keep the stay clear of the lantern boards. 
 
I didn't really document the booms being fabricated and assembled/painted, but their installation has begun. The hardware was made from various brass strips and wire. Their rigging has also begun with sheets and topping lifts run. I am using Bluejacket blocks, as Latham had internally stropped blocks, and Syren line for the running rigging. 

I have completed the ratlines on both masts, which really wasn't too bad with the limited number of shrouds. Lantern boards were built and painted and secured with thin brass brackets seized to the shrouds per the plans. I also soldered up the topmast spreaders from brass wire and seized those to the shrouds as well, to keep the stay clear of the lantern boards. 
 
I didn't really document the booms being fabricated and assembled/painted, but their installation has begun. The hardware was made from various brass strips and wire. Their rigging has also begun with sheets and topping lifts run. I am using Bluejacket blocks, as Latham had internally stropped blocks, and Syren line for the running rigging. 

Here are my finished pictures. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

I finished this model and then I decided to post log pictures. There are lots of good build logs in this forum so I will post a sequence of progress pictures with few comments.
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


I used a wide removable tape to spile the strokes. A pencil was used to mark the in-place strake and bulkhead marks for next strake. Tape was removed and marks joined using a French Curve.  Tape was laid on wood and wood was cut and shaped as needed. 
 

 

 

 
Rudder and shaft
 


Building interior parts
 

 


Engine parts
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

Ratline Action Continues ☺️  Photo this time as I've something to actually show !  Distance between them is equal to 14'' scaled and Stretchers will be added when they are finished to avoid knocking it as I tie my Clove Hitches..
 
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As Ever Thanks For Stopping By Folks
 
 

My eyes are crossing just looking at that Mike. Nice job!