Landlubber Mike

One question for everyone. The stern is sort of a square-tuck stern, and not a round tuck as with others. I think the last bulkhead provides the lower circular shape of the counter, but at the same time, I'm wondering if the bulkhead needs to be faired in order to accommodate the end of the planking runs into it. If faired though, it seems like the counter shape will change. Hopefully these pictures show what I'm trying to describe (it's the lower edge of this piece that the planking is suppose to terminate at: Anyone else encounter this issue? I'm trying to figure out whether I should fair the last bulkhead, or build it up a bit so that I can fair it to the edge the original bulkhead so that the end of the planks have something to sit on. Thanks in advance!

For folks building the kit, the cast metal pieces are pretty close to the Chapman plans (the kit plans shown below are exact replicas from Chapman). There are some differences though, which people should be aware of. For example, the upper tier of lights is the right dimension, but the kit is simplified in having a rectangular row, rather than slight curves as in the plans. The gallery balcony railing is pretty close. The quarter gallery lights are pretty much spot on. What is a little off is the lower tier of lights/upper counter area, the wrap around section that goes to the quarter galleries, and the tafferel - all of which are smaller than the plans suggest: They aren't off by much, but it's something to be on the lookout for. My guess is that the tafferal can be bent outwards to widen it a bit at the sides. What is tougher is the fact that the lower lights section of the stern is not as wide or tall as the plans. I'm not sure the reason, but maybe it was intended to simplify things for the builder a bit. It looks like builders have taken all types of approaches to make the cast parts work, since the plans and parts don't match up precisely. In particular, I think that the lower half of the quarter gallery should extend further out as in the picture below. I think you could use the cast part, but my guess from the Chapman plans is that one would need to add some filler under the cast metal piece to accomplish this. So, I think I'm going to try scratch building the stern as much as possible. It's complicated, and has taken me a lot of time to work through, but I think in the end I'll be a little happier. Plus, I won't have to try to fill in caps between the cast metal pieces, open up the window panes, etc.

Some more progress - got the first seven strakes of first planking on, starting from the keel up. I also finished the upper stem blocks. These took a little time because I wanted to make sure that not only would they provide support for the planking, but that they would also help keep the bowsprit in alignment. Because the false keel is about 5.5mm in thickness but the bowsprit is around 8.5mm, I added some spacers to the blocks (hard to see in the pictures), with the correct bowsprit angle built in. So, everything now fits like a glove and I won't have to worry about the bowsprit alignment.

Looks great Chris. Didn't you use pear on your Confederacy? Where did you source this pear? Is it swiss pear?

The anti-fraying stuff works wonders. You end up getting a super clean cut as if you were cutting paper. Hopefully that should help. For the sail cloth material, I think if you're doing furled sails the weave and thickness matters much less. The thickness really only comes into play when establishing the bulk of the furled sail, so you just have to adjust the size accordingly. If I was to do it over, I'd probably add a tad more bulk, particularly on the jibs. I've seen pictures where the sails were furled that tightly into such a compressed form, and then others where there was more bulk. I'd still just get the thinnest material you can find, wash it a few times to soften it, and then iron it out. For my current builds, I'm going to try to use full sails. That will be a little trickier as the weave, thickness, etc. becomes more important. Good luck!

Amazing work Jason. The colors you are using complement each other perfectly. Just wow!

Really amazing work. Your simulated wood looks better than my real wood

Slowly making some progress. Finally got the bulkheads and filler blocks faired and started with the first planking. First three planks starting from the keel are in: So far so good. Lots of curves on this ship. There's a lot going on with the stern, so I spent quite a bit of time going over the plans and how the cast metal parts are supposed to fit together. The interesting thing about the Euromodel plans is that they will be true to the Chapman plans in some drawings and simplified (e.g., straight, less curvatures) in others - sometimes on the same sheet. So, you have to be mindful of that when building. The cast metal pieces for the stern are pretty good, but in some cases like the row of stern windows fronting the balcony, follow the more simplified square approach, whereas the Chapman plans show more curves intended that follow the curvatures of the decks and balcony. As is often said with respect to these Euromodel kits, they are quasi scratch kits that are intended allow a builder plenty of latitude to build the model as simple or as detailed as one would like. I think I'm going to challenge myself and scratch build some or all of the cast metal pieces for the stern. I'd like to follow the Chapman plans as much as possible, and I think the cast metal parts deviate in certain respects. For example, there are windows at the lower drop area of the quarter galleries and between the balcony and counter/chase ports - but the cast metal parts have these filled in. Building them from scratch would probably take close to the same amount of time as opening these and other windows up. Along with potentially not doing a clean job opening the windows up, I worry that the seams where the cast metal and wood parts meet would need to be filled, which sometimes could be a hard thing to do. Then of course, there is the need to paint the cast metal parts, and I'm not that great when it comes to detailed painting. I just think that I can achieve a crisper finish scratching these items than I can from working with the cast metal parts. The good news is that the parts and plans give a very good model for me to base my work on. I'll try to detail some of the changes from the kit in future posts.

Really nice work BE. Fingers crossed here for you as well, but I'm sure you'll figure out a solution if you need one.

I'd say take your time Chris. I'd rather have one ship that represented my best work, than 4-5 ships that I put together in the same period of time that weren't my personal best. Plus, if your wife is like mine, she'll appreciate your house not looking like a museum. My wife's friend was over this weekend and saw my Renommee on the kitchen island. First thing she said was that she was really impressed I was tackling such a difficult project. Second thing after I left the room was to ask my wife if she was going to be ok with my putting these models all over the house. My wife assured her that I was so slow in building that she wasn't too worried.

Wow those gratings are amazing. Very nicely done!

Looking really good John. Lots of interesting techniques that I’ll have to borrow.

Really nice work Elijah. Love how your stained hull came out! Amazing! Can I ask what stain and preconditioner you ended up going with?

After a family vacation and being busy with work the past few weeks, I haven't had as much time on the build. I did make some progress, including gluing down the gun deck templates and making a little more headway on the hull fairing. As a break, I also glued up the grating strips to begin making the hatches and other grating items. Yes, a messy shipyard! At this stage I've been working on fairing the bulkheads and filler blocks. This stage takes a long longer than one would think, but I've learned that it's better to take time now, rather than have to later do a lot of filling and sanding. I had a slight wave in my false keel, which was largely straightened after attaching the stem and keel. Unfortunately, the top of the false keel lists slightly by about 1-2mm to the port side between bulkheads 8 and 11. I'm a bit annoyed because I spent a lot of time dry fitting, using square blocks, spacers, etc. to make sure that the bulkheads were square and perpendicular, but it looks like I couldn't fully get the keel fully straightened at that section. This resulted in the tops of bulkheads 8-11 listing slightly over to port, which in turn required a bit of opening up the gun deck template slots and the port template being slightly askew at the stern (still scratching my head on that one). These are all small deviations which I am fixing by adding extra material on the starboard bulkheads, and will sand a bit off the port bulkheads. In the end, I'm expecting these end up being non issues, especially after two layers of hull planking, etc. I keep thinking back to my Pegasus build, where Amati used MDF that was perfectly flat and everything fit like a glove.

To me, holly looks a little too light. But, I think it really depends on the overall aesthetic you’re trying to achieve. It certainly works if you’re using it with woods of bright color and no grain (or if you’re using paint). If using darker colors, or woods with more grain, etc., it might not work as well.

Exceptional work as always Bob. Congratulations on a beautiful model! Looking forward to following your next one!

Really nice Joe. Very crisp!

I used the Proxxon DB250 for the masts and spars on my Badger. It was a really great tool, and made constructing them very easy. It had an opening to be able to work with longer masts, and really was an easy tool to use. I just used sand paper as the wood was turning to create taper in the masts, and it worked quickly, easily, and accurately. I ended up selling mine because I upgraded to the Sherline thinking it would be more versatile to turn metal as well as wood. In a way I wish I kept the Proxxon given how easy it was to use. I haven't used it yet, but it's good to hear from Roger that there is a hollow spindle so you don't necessarily need to buy a longer bed.

Wow, I don't know how I missed this log before. Very nicely done Patrick!

Quite the motley crew. They will certainly bring the ship to life!

Looks great Mark!

This looks like a really nice kit, and you're doing a great job so far. I agree that the details are fantastic!

I had the same issue with one of my hulls - thankfully I was able to find a machine screw in a much longer length so I think I'm ok. Otherwise, the threaded rod should work too, or even a rod without threads I would imagine. For pedestals, I bought a bunch from Model Expo a while back. They are brass and come in different heights which help when dealing with hulls where one end of the keel is lower than the other side. Haven't used Amati. Given your location, have you looked at Cornwall Model Boats? They sell lots of fittings across a number of manufacturers.

I agree with SpyGlass - the nuts are mounted really high up the keel. You have to factor in the pedestal height, as well as the height of the baseboard or the base of your display case.

GMO and Mobbsie, so sorry to have missed your posts on this log. I was so focused on my Renommee that I neglected to look here. Thank you for sharing your techniques! Mobbsie (and GMO), no worries at all about asking permission to post pictures on my log - the more the merrier! I would love to see the results of your work. Aldo, thank you very much for the kind words. The Morgan is a nice subject - long history, you can see it at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut (it was recently refurbished - not sure if that is the right term), and it's something other than the multi-cannon subjects typically seen. Lots of cool and interesting details that go along with these whalers too, like the tryworks. It's been a nice learning experience building this ship because like most MS kits, this one requires you to add framing pieces, whereas the European manufacturers tend to use things like gunport strips and the like to make things easier for the builder. It's also been nice working on this subject because I'm going to get to "paint with wood" - though, we will see how well that turns out.