Landlubber Mike

Wow, I missed this build John. Really nice job! Hope you are doing well.

Nice job! What a cool unique project!

Nice job Kevin!! Looks great!

Very cool! Nice job!

Making nice work of these kits Patrick. That flash on the first kit, yikes!

I've tried Vallejo Metal Colors Chrome over their gloss black primer and it looks pretty good. Not that mirror chrome type look, but more of a scaled look. I'll have to try some of the other options out there you mentioned, thanks for sharing!

Nice job Craig! Another beauty! Can I ask what you did for the chrome? Did you use foil? Molotow? Whatever you did looks great! I'm in the middle of a few car builds and stuck on what to do for the chrome. I painted some parts using Vallejo Metal, but was thinking about foiling other parts. Just not sure that the chrome would look the same across different sources.

Wow, those are really cool Andy! Nice job! Happy new year to you!

That came out great! Nice job!

I often times need a break from the monotony of a build. Looking forward to your DVII!

Wow, nicely done!! Great paint and decal work!

Nice start and congrats on finding the white wall inserts! I love the cars from this period. I have this one and a couple of the other Monogram kits of this series in the stash. I heard they build into nice kits, so will be watching your progress with mucho interest!

Cool subject! I've always liked the looks and color schemes of the 1970 LeMans blue cars. Reminds me of being a kid - my dad had a slot car track and one of the cars we had was the blue and orange Porsche, my favorite of the cars to race on that track.

Just caught up with your log Dan, really nice job! Love the camo scheme - your paint job looks perfect! Can I ask a question? I noticed your sanded the primer base with 2000 grit. Is there a reason you did so? Was it for the grey/green camo? The aluminum underside? I've only sanded primer and painted areas where I found a flaw, so am curious as to why you did so. I've seen other modelers do it - I think often to improve the effect for metallic paints - and always wondered the reason.

Coming along great Kevin! Those secondary turrets look fantastic. This is going to be quite an epic model when you're done!

Thanks Kevin! My eyes sometimes feel like that after a long PE session. Ha! I don't think she fully appreciates the work that goes into models. She sees me with the Optivisor on and laughs. Or she sees me on the floor trying to find a small PE part that pinged off my tweezers and just shakes her head. Both are actually waterline models - most 1/700 kits are, though more and more are coming out with full hulls. I've got the diorama frames and bases cut out and ready to go for this diorama and one for my Yaeyama build. I figure it's more efficient if I do the dioramas at the same time, since the frame construction, sea painting, and little diorama details are the same. I actually started a third Japanese 1/700 ship which is coming along quickly, so I might actually package it with the two other diorama builds. Hopefully these will all be done in the next couple of months as I need to whittle down the stash and get back to my wooden models.

That looks like a great option for the tryworks. Whenever I turn back to mine, I might go that route. I did find someone on eBay that was selling these super tiny bricks I believe made of actual clay that I might try using also. I didn't want to have to cut that many tiny bricks out of basswood either.

I also have a 17" Sherline lathe and mostly turn wood on it. Works really well.

It's been a while, but a week or so ago I dusted off these ships and put in some work. They are now mostly done construction wise - minus some items for the diorama - and up for the spray booth. It's amazing how long these 1/700 kits can take when using one of the comprehensive detail sets. You probably could assemble most out of the box in a day or two, but with the PE sets, etc., they take much longer. Here is the Asashio - I will add the guns and torpedo launchers after the primer coat just to make sure I get all the eventual crevices and tight spaces painted: Here's the Akashi - I found some blueprints, so spent quite a bit of time going beyond the FiveStar set to add things like new masts, exhaust pipes, etc. The deck looks fairly empty, but there are more than a dozen small boats that are added to the deck. I'll probably have some off the ship in the water as part of the diorama, and add things like construction materials since this is a repair ship. Thanks for looking in. Happy New Year everyone!

Wow, amazing model and diorama! The car looks 1:1 scale!

I'd build what you're interested in. If it's a frigate, build a frigate. I built the Caldercraft Badger as my first kit, and while I have three wooden ship builds in process at the moment, I didn't think they were too far a step up in skill level. To me, the bigger ships typically just have more repetitive tasks that need to be done, they don't necessarily involve new construction techniques. Just take your time and look at other logs and you should be good to go. If you are worried about experience level, just buy one of the kits with good instructions and lots of build logs on here. For what it's worth, the Euromodel La Renommee that I'm working on is a frigate. The kit pretty much comes with no instructions, but has really good plans. @piratepete007 has put together a wonderful practicum for this and other Euromodel builds that is very helpful. Euromodel kits do require more scratch building than typical kits - they are a good middle ground if you ultimately want to scratch build some day. I love the subject, which is based on plans found in Chapman's Architectura, but I'm convinced it's not a French vessel but more likely a Swedish vessel (more on that in my build log). I had started building the Corel Unicorn - also a frigate - but there are a lot of errors and shortcuts in the kit. It does make for a nice model, but if you're into accuracy, then it's not a good kit to try. I ended up abandoning my build for that reason - the hull was way too tall and the plans were all over the place - drove me a little too crazy and I just thought it made more sense to spend my time working on something else.

Wow, this is masterpiece modeling at its finest! Amazing job Jolle!

Wow, that came out really great Chris!! Nice job man!

Hi Steve, I think I'm going to go with the higher ("original") waterline from the kit plans. Apparently the waterline was at different levels during various periods, so it depends on the period you are thinking about modeling I suppose. For me, I like the look of the higher copper line, and it would save me from having to plank in ebony that much further down the hull. If it helps, page 4 of my build log showed models with the different waterlines: For the copper plating, I'm thinking of replacing the plates with those from Amati or Caldercraft (I forget which). I'm also going to try to oxidize the copper a bit to get that green verdigris look. I suppose you could paint it, but would the lower hull look like it's copper plated?

Nicely done Steve!