GLakie

Spectacular work there by you and the Nutz bros Matt!   You really out-did yourselves with that windlass. I agree with Steve on the blackening. It'd be a shame to cover all the beautiful brass-work there. 
 
Cheers 

Adding my two cents worth to bring you up to a dime ....
Beautiful job by the crew there, Matt. I reckon I'd give serious thought to leaving the whole assembly with a brass look.

Hi Matt,
 
Well you have 1c there already, but my 2c view is spectacular work by the entire Nutz team! 
 
Cheers,
 
Nigel.

I think you're doing an awesome job on your mini-detailing Nenad.  It's one of those things that the more you do it, the easier it becomes, and sooner or later, it will become an automatic thing. 
 
Cheers

Okay I received my Model Shipways kit this morning and this is some huge kit.   I have big hands but I think I'll be able to handle working with this one.  I've been doing a lot of reading and after getting some definitions straightened out, I think I'm ready to begin.  I am really impressed with the quality of this kit. (and I can understand the instructions too). .   I'm starting off with some basic photos. . .namely the package as I received it.  You can tell I'm not a salt at this because those who have completed a lot of kits don't bother with any photos until they are into the build. .  not me, I'm proud of every step. .  I might even break the record for the number of photos taken of a build.  I built a 10 foot work bench. . installed some good lighting and magnifiers. .  then I promptly opened up all the plans in the house. . .  my wife was very impressed to say the least.   I spent the first 5 or 6 hours laying out the parts on the plans and marking the reference lines, bearding lines, center lines,  and rabbet lines on the parts from the plans. . .  I read a lot of the helps that are posted on the Model Ship World tutorial page and I must say there are some very smart and helpful people on this website.  
 

Great progress, Bob!

I know what you mean about that Mark. I do the same thing when just picking up lumber, usually,   unless I have power-tools on my mind.  

Clare, it looks a well thought out kit.  A nice, graceful craft. The CNC milling and wood selection really helps to make it a beauty. Thanks for sharing it.

I know what you mean about that Mark. I do the same thing when just picking up lumber, usually,   unless I have power-tools on my mind.  

Thanks to you all.  The dragon is a lovely boat, I hope I can do her justice.  Now it’s time to show you more.  I’m building the deck off the boat.  The top of the sub-deck will be even with the sheer line of the hull and the deck will overlap the hull.  I’ve started by making the sub-deck to just fit inside the hull and the edge plank overlaps this and will be sanded to the hull edge when the deck is installed.
 
Bob
 
Top of deck

 
Underside of deck

I think you're doing an awesome job on your mini-detailing Nenad.  It's one of those things that the more you do it, the easier it becomes, and sooner or later, it will become an automatic thing. 
 
Cheers

I think you're doing an awesome job on your mini-detailing Nenad.  It's one of those things that the more you do it, the easier it becomes, and sooner or later, it will become an automatic thing. 
 
Cheers

I know what you mean about that Mark. I do the same thing when just picking up lumber, usually,   unless I have power-tools on my mind.  

Thanks Mark and Marc.
 
There is an interesting thing I was thinking of. If you succeeded in something miniature, on some way, to me it seems that, success in some way pin you down to keep that line of detailing. It does not matter that you need a magnifier to see something. I thing that "invisible" details gives something special in whole picture on the similar way as high range of frequencies gives special feeling to music you listen 
 
Usual Saturday ... garden work at morning and after lunch fight with Yuka, and after that, nice time in shipyard at the evening
 
First decided to finish right cat-head with whisker boom  - complete done. I decided to put on it all possible shackle I am able to make, so, I started to play with beats ( brass wire 0,5 mm in 0,5 mm holes cemented with CA and covered with black acrylic

First - whisker. Two angles ( to up and to the back) are presented, and I tried to follow angles on C-plans
 
Temporary in place
 

 
And a details of connection.
 

 
Then .... uh how small are this ... very hard to control them ... making 
Dry testing
 

 
It can not pass through the hole I made, so it have to be mounted later
 
And then I decided to try one nice detail, which is, I suppose, necessary for proper rigging of bowsprit ( on C-plans called "Eyebair for Fore Tuck")
 

 
Little improvisation ( wire goes through sheave) and here we are. here are cleat, pins on both side of cat-head, and "cat-stopper" (?)
 
Uh, oh, ah, it seems I forgot to extend "cat-stopper" through bullwark to the outside on the fore surface of cat ... something to do next time, but it will be difficult, considering everything is cemented
 

 
Ok, cathead is cemented on place, and there is time to put beats/beasts on their place. There is something in C-plans called "Iron horn", but there simply has no place for it, considering whiskers are a bit over-scale thick
 

 
Hmmm ... little overscaled, but I can live with this
 
And after painting
 

 
And whole look of cat head with mounted whiskers boom
 

 
 
 
Edit: previewing post I noticed that I mixed pictures and text, but, i think you get a point. One of this days I ll edit this post properly. To late now 

Thanks for the comments and support.
 
 
 
Sam,
I can't answer that about sealing the ports and how well it worked.  The French frigates didn't have lids on the gundeck as it was exposed in the waist.  They use bucklers insead (a one or two piece scheme of a lid fitted to the outside and then secured from the inside. 
 
 
Tom
Short answer.. they stay full width or should.  However, for eye appeal, I probably should taper maybe a 32nd of an inch...  I'll give that some thought when I start laying planks again. The bigger issue is that if I taper them, I'll have to use some stealers at the stern.  Right now, still shaping things.  I do need to make a Lowe's trip for a profile/contour gauge to duplicate this work to the other side.  Better leave the CC at home and only take cash for this run....

Glad to be of some help, Bob. Heck, your build helped inspire me many times, so I'm glad to return the favor!
 
Well, the last couple of days, my brain has just been all fuzzy. I'm not in a ship modeling rut, just a general rut. Looking forward to our local gathering of forum ship modelers in Vallejo tomorrow. Maybe that will wake up my brain a little.
 
Am managing this post, though, so I guess I'm not totally fried...
 
 
Okay, so about that walkway platform. The kit instructions translate this to either railing or parapet. I'll just call it railing. Here's the translation I worked out from the instructions for this step:
Step 15 Installation of Railing, Part 1•Refer to the plans in the installation of the walkway.
 
Cut (planks ends) flush with the edge of the beams
Trim off the protruding ends of the beams
 
 
This step requires a little soaking and bending of wood strips. Again, definitely wet the wood thoroughly before trying to bend it. Bends very nicely when wet, no heat required.
 

Walkway planks added.
 

Closeup of the walkway planks. You can see the beam sticking out a little at lower left that will need to get trimmed flush with the planking. Also, I think you can make out that the outer planks here are the L-shaped ones. This creates a little lip against which the posts of the side railing fits against.
 
Carrying on to complete the rail installation...
 
 
Step 16 Installation of Railing, Part 2• Please assemble the handrails according the full size diagrams.
 
Mount the railing to fit up against the lip
 
 
With pre-cut parts for the rail stanchions, this step is pretty simple. It just requires a little pre-bending of the rails themselves, and the stanchions should be kept vertical, so they aren't all perpendicular to the rails themselves.
 

Rails assembled according to the full-size plan sheets
 

The stanchions aren't pegged in, just glued. I'm using Titebond, so I want to clamp them firmly in place until glue sets
 

Both rails now in place
 

Closeup of the rail detail.
 
 
It's at this point that I really started to look at this model as a really nice example of a very Japanese boat. The concept of the pleasure boats with several people out on the water for an evening and watching fireworks over the river on a warm summer night is a very charming image.
 
In a previous post, I mentioned Japanese lanterns. Then, the person who suggested them had a though about how maybe these standing floor lanterns might not have been used by a boat that might rock and they might tip over, which I really did wonder about. Then, I spoke with my Japanese music teacher (I have been a student of the Japanese 3-stringed lute called a "Shamisen" for about 10 years now), who used to live in Asakusa, which is a part of Tokyo with a traditional Edo period theme (well, that and lots of old style shopping).
 
As far as Japanese people go, my teacher is pretty connected with traditional culture and she's been interested in my traditional Japanese boats, but especially the Yakatabune. I think it's a real cultural symbol of "the good life" and very important to many people when they think about it.
 
Anyway, I mentioned the lantern to her and about the possibility that they might have had to use hanging lanterns because it was in a boat. She pretty confidently dismissed that idea. I guess the idea is that floor lanterns were classy and the hanging ones, not so much, except outdoors. Probably the boatmen worked pretty hard to not rock the boat.
 
Thinking about it, it's not like there were any power vessels at the time to create big wakes, so not much reason for a decent sized boat to rock. So, I'm sticking with the floor lanterns idea, which I'm really glad about.
 
Clare
 

Just. Thought when I lit mine I lined the inside of the hull with tinfoil (not to block light out but to reflect it so I needed less leds) but it did have that effect you could line anywhere you didn't want light escaping with foil (I used double sided sticky tape to stick my foil with) just an idea.

It's too hot to do much work in the garage so a quick minor update sounds like a good thing to do. I finished one channel with chain-plates, on the fwd starboard side. I'll use three steel pins and CA plus PVA glue to mount it in place. The photo shows it with the three pins holding it in place dry. The center pin hole is slightly too high on the hull which shows up in the photo. I'll make the center hole a bit bigger to correct the bow and secure the pins in place with med CA along with PVA for the wood to wood contact.  I was going to start on the aft channel, but after giving it some additional thought I decided I need to finish some deck work so I do not knock off the boat davits and sheer bars that get mounted with the aft channel.
 
I've been procrastinating on making the remaining carronade jack-screws (17) and rope coils. The jack-screws are simply a pain to make and I need to order more rope for the rope coils, but I need to finish these tasks before I paint myself into a corner. Below is a photo of a no. 90 brass hex head with a 0.017 drill bit. I drill the bolt head through in two locations 90 deg apart. Once the four holes are in place, I turn the bolt head to make it round, then add wire to simulate handles. The wire ends are dipped in CA glue to look like knobs on the end of the wire. I'll blacken the assy and then mount it on the carronade. 
 

I use my drill press to drill the holes and chase the holes with my hand drill. Four down fourteen to go.
 

Here you can see the center of the channel is slightly high. 
 

Someone needs to stow that anchor before a big wave rolls it into someone and kills them. 

Thanks again, fellas!
 
John

Very ingenious. That small stuff is fun to work with but a bit tough on the eyes! Looking good!
(btw - interesting look with the red paint smeared over the gunports before covered up. Looks like a massacre occurred...)

Looking great Robb! I'm gonna steal your idea on the cleats since I have a couple dozen to make.

And while you are in the folder/desktop where your pictures are, hold down the CTRL key and while holding it down CLICK on each photo you want to upload, when you've finishes selecting all your photos then click OPEN and ATTACH and follow George's instructions above

You're lucky with finding the cleat Robb.  Usually they end up in another dimension never to be seen again. 
Ok---At the bottom, right next to your "Post" button is the "More reply Options" button. Before you start with your post click that, then at the bottom, notice the "choose file" button. Click that and go to your desktop, or navigate to wherever your pictures are located on your computer, and click "open", then "Attatch This File". That will locate a small thumbnail of the pic right there with a "Add to Post" or delete option.  Relocate your cursor where you want the pic and click the "Add to Post".
 
Cheers 

You're lucky with finding the cleat Robb.  Usually they end up in another dimension never to be seen again. 
Ok---At the bottom, right next to your "Post" button is the "More reply Options" button. Before you start with your post click that, then at the bottom, notice the "choose file" button. Click that and go to your desktop, or navigate to wherever your pictures are located on your computer, and click "open", then "Attatch This File". That will locate a small thumbnail of the pic right there with a "Add to Post" or delete option.  Relocate your cursor where you want the pic and click the "Add to Post".
 
Cheers 

I cant add any more than already has been said John, you deserve all the above plaudits.
 
Well done mate.
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie