Landlubber Mike

Hi ZyXuz, thanks for looking in on my log. I saw on your blog that you are now on the cannons. Have you decided on the number of guns that you will add to the ship overall, and whether you are going to use smaller caliber guns for the quarterdeck? I bought from CMB some smaller Caldercraft guns and carriages for the quarterdeck to see how they would look, but still thinking about what I want to do. Also, how do you like the cannon carriages? They actually don't seem all that bad, and it's nice that they are pre-constructed. It was a bit of a pain to assemble the carriages on my Badger, and there were only 12 guns

Thanks very much Kester - I'll have to remember that for next time. I think that makes sense on the coils. I forget where I saw this technique, as I'm not smart enough to have thought about it on my own For the furled sails, there is a little more bulk in the center of the yard, but perhaps I could have added a little more. Thanks for looking in and the advice, I really appreciate it!

This is how I made the rope coils for the belaying pins. First few pictures show the simple jig from balsa which was set up to handle three coils at once. Slots are cut on one end to hold one end of the thread. I then looped it around the two push pins three or four times, then the line comes under and around the middle of the loop into a simple knot. I bit of diluted PVA was run over the knot and the loops to keep things relatively secure. Once dry, I used a block of balsa to try and get the coils to hang in a somewhat natural fashion. You can see in the next of pictures my high tech jig. By placing the top pin over the corner of the block, it helped get the coil into a better position I thought to hang naturally from the pin. Diluted PVA was added again to freeze them in place. Here are the final results. I think they came out somewhat ok, but if I had to do it over, I probably would have made them longer and probably a bit messier looking. Even pre-shaped, I found it was necessary to use a rigging hook to hold down the bottom of the coil to position it better after liberally applying another dose of diluted PVA.

Hi everyone, here is a quick update of where I am now. The spars and braces are up, and at this stage, all that I have left is some rigging at the bow and stern, the backstays, jib stay, tighten up some other lines, and add the remaining detail items (driver boom, some more coils, the anchors and non buoys, rudder chain and flag). I was originally planning to have the ship completed by the end of last month, but came down with shingles of all things. Thankfully I'm better after about three weeks of excruciating pain, and making some good progress. I'm not in a rush at this point, as I'm not expecting the upgraded wood packages for my next two builds, the Corel Unicorn and MS Charles Morgan, until April or May. So, that gives me time to enjoy the home stretch and finish the display case. Enough rambling, here are some pictures. Again, sorry for the poor quality, but this is the most neutral background I can find in my house Thanks for looking in as always.

Hi Mark, Good luck on version 2. I think this is a good call if you wouldn't be satisfied with version 1, and I'm sure version 2 will come out fantastic. Just think of version 1 as a learning experience Mike

Hi again ZyXuz, hope all is well. My package from CMB arrived, so now I should have enough thread to finish my Badger. I also got a few goodies for my upcoming Unicorn build, which I thought I would share with you (and Ian of course), if you don't mind. For the coat of arms, I ordered A5349, which was listed as 17mm (I think you had ordered A5350, the 27mm one). The 17mm is pretty close as you can see to the coat of arms on the original cast metal stern piece, but much sharper in definition. For the stern galleries, there is crown that sits on top of the cast metal piece. It all looks pretty mediocre, so I bought AMND166 (CD166), which is pretty close in size, but again, much better definition. I also bought a few other items to play around with. One was the stern decoration for another ship (A5338), which I could use the two ends for decoration around the coat of arms or along the sides of the stern. I also bought one of Corel's edging strip (CD110, or AMND110), which I might use as accents along the stern. I probably have more posts on the Unicorn, a ship I haven't even started building, than I do my Badger that I've been building for over five years

Peyton tends to choke in big games, particularly in cold weather

Very nice work ZyXuz, glad to see you back

Congrats on the victory - good luck at the Super Bowl

Am very excited to see a build log for this ship here - a bit jealous too! Gorgeous ship, and the Euromodel kits are really amazing in terms of the quality of plans and components, and the added instructions. I recently picked up the Friedrich Wilhelm zu Pferde, which really has spoiled me when it comes to all other kit manufacturers. Good luck and take lots of pictures!

Jay, thanks very much for sharing - they came out great, and look better than mine Certainly not imposing at all. I like the color of your sails, and the seams in them. Very nice! Happy that you were able to borrow a little from my post to do your fine work.

Good question Robert. Probably thinner than what I used I imagine. I think his Victory was at 1:96 scale, so his cloth is probably a lot thinner. I'm going to have to look into that material for my next builds.

Thought I'd pass along this link of a spectacular model of the Victory that I came across today. Take a look at the furled sails - they are furled very tightly against the yard for a rather thin profile. Amazing work! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2219810/Magnificent-model-HMS-Victory-complete-Lord-Nelson-Captain-Hardy-deck-took-pensioner-10-years-complete.html

Hi John, I agree with Augie - you can't really paint in place. What I've done though is use a cotton swab to keep constant contact on brass that was already fitted to the model. I've had mixed results with that, so right now, for minor touch-ups, I just add a little black paint. Good luck!

Hi Ian, Good to know about the windows. I'll have to take that into consideration when scratching the stern and stern galleries. If you look at the Chapman plans, they do indeed show windows with arches at the top. I'm wondering if these arches were decorative, rather than part of the actual windows? It's a bit hard to tell from the Chapman plans whether the arch served as part of the window panes, but take a look at this stern from model SLR0461 of the RMG. The windows here are rectangular, with decorative arches at the top. The ship is from 1741, so fairly close in time to the time of the Unicorn. Here is the link to the RMG site. It's a bit hard to tell whether the stern gallery windows are constructed this way as well, but it looks like it could be the approach taken. It might be a bit odd to have rectangular windows at the stern and arched windows at the gallery. http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66422.html After seeing this model in the Gardiner book, I was thinking that this would be a nice approach when scratching the stern - particularly since it would be much easier to create rectangular windows without arches Given your research and calculations on the window size, then maybe this approach would not only make more sense, but also be true to the Chapman plans. So, should we contact Corel and tell them to fix their kit? Think we can charge a consulting fee for all our research?

Hi ZyXuz, sorry to hear about the issue with your order. Sounds like you can use the stuff they sent by mistake, so I guess all is not lost. When my package arrives, I'll let you know how the coat of arms works (I'll post a picture so you can see if you need to go with the bigger or the smaller one). My hope is that I can use either of the Amati coats of arms, and reconfigure the stern to look like the Chapman plan. That would take making a curvier design to the top of the stern, and I'll probably sculpt or carve figures on the side of the coat of arms. At least that's the plan For the thread, I just ordered the Caldercraft thread. I didn't want to mix and match threads at this point on my Badger. I'm not super impressed with their thread - it's ok, but can be a bit fuzzy, especially some batches. I might go with Chuck's thread for future builds, but looking at the other kits on my shelf, the Amati thread looks pretty good. For the Unicorn deck, the height is probably correct but the slope is probably off given that the Chapman plans show the portholes opening up as you go forward. I think you're right that all that is needed is to build up the frames of the fore end of the quarterdeck a bit before the planking is added. I am going to try and modify it to match the Chapman plans, but not sure how easy it will be to open them up. CMB sells the Corel portholes in packets of 10, so I placed an order for them (they were sold out the first time I ordered). I had to guess on the size, as CMB sells them in 9mm and 12mm (diameters I assume), and of course when I measured them, they seemed to be 10mm in diameter I had some time this week to do some thinking about the color scheme as well. I think I'm going to go with a thick black wale, and black for the background of the stern and possibly the stern galleries. I have a feeling that I'm going to want to scratch the stern galleries as well, as I'm not all that impressed with the cast parts. I plan to open the waist as well, and I'll probably also add ships boats to that area. Interestingly, the Pandora had four boats of various sizes - three across, and the smallest nested inside one of the other three. If I don't talk to you before then, hope you have a good new year and good luck with your future career plan

Very nice work Pierre, coming along beautifully.

Wow, this is incredible work. I love the sails - very nice touch. Thanks very much for sharing.

HI again ZyXuz, Just out of curiosity, did you get the CMB order in yet? I was wondering how the coat of arms replacement part that you got worked out. I had to place an order for more rigging thread on my Badger because I needed a bit more 0.50mm thread to do a tie on the main topgallant yard (the last bit of rigging requiring that size thread, very frustrating!), but that gave me an excuse to order other goodies for my Unicorn. I ended up ordering the smaller coat of arms as I forgot that you had placed an order for the larger one. Just wondering how it worked out. Thanks! Hope all is well my friend.

Hi ZyXuz and Ian, I was reading the Gardiner book "The Sailing Frigate" last night (an excellent book on the development of frigates using ship models from the NMM), and came upon a passage on the headroom between the decks that reminded me of Ian's post above. Here is an excerpt from page 49: "The Unicorn and Lyme were a great success, and eventually twenty ships were built to this design during the next war, including five experimentally built of softwood . . . . The prototype pair followed their French model [the Tygre] quite closely, but proved too cramped internally for RN purposes, so the second pair were modified to add about a foot of headroom between decks - ironically, as this was one of the features that had made the French formula so attractive in the first place - but it meant better conditions for the men berthed on the lower deck, and increased the main battery freeboard from its barely adequate 5ft." So maybe Corel actually got this right?

Hi John, hope you and your family are having a great 2014. Really nice work on your Morgan - it's coming along great. I remember getting to this point on my Badger and getting excited that the build was finally looking like a ship I don't mean to hijack your build log, but can I ask you a question? I am going to start the Morgan after my Badger is completed, and I'm considering avoiding the use of paint as much as possible. So, I've been thinking about what type of wood to use for various parts of the ship. In looking at your pictures of the real Morgan and other pictures, it looks like the deck, bulwarks and deck furniture and other items seem to all be the same color. Was that your recollection? If so, I was thinking that maybe using boxwood for those areas would work. Thanks very much!

Absolutely beautiful model of a beautiful ship. Thanks so much for sharing.

Daniel thanks for that great explanation. Makes a lot of sense, thank you!

Thanks, I'll have to try that out.

Oh, he made it collapsible? I was worried that his model was damaged, whew! Did you manage to get Google translator to work? Or do you speak Italian? I would love to find a translated version for reference on my next build - which, at the rate that I proceed at, will likely be in 5-10 years