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mrcc

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Everything posted by mrcc

  1. I cleaned the corroded cast metal pieces with vinegar and salt and the results were excellent... with only minor marring on the surfaces. I also polished the brass cannons with autosol metal polish and they also turned out excellent as you can see from the pictures. Perhaps should have left the cannons in their original state as would likely not need to "blacken" them. Quite a bit of work though...
  2. There are a few wonderful builds of this kit on MSW and thought I would add to the current roster. In my opinion, this kit builds into a wonderful static display and I have been working my skills up to the level required to complete this kit. My last and only Mamoli build previously was the Mamoli Santa Maria kit and I am very happy how it turned out given the limitations in instructions. Nevertheless, I have seemed to figure out the Mamoli way of building and though the present kit I purchased was a vintage kit off of Ebay, I am still very pleased with the quality of materials and metal castings. *Unfortunately I am missing the figurehead and noted some degradation in some of the metal casting and the keel is significantly warped. *Fortunately I have sourced the figurehead and the wood looks excellent given its age as I estimate the kit to be about 35-40 years old at this time.
  3. Thanks Peter for your comments… Funny as I reviewed your entire Cutty Sark build log a few weeks back and enjoyed it thoroughly. PS… noticed you are on the Island… my parents are retired in Nanaimo and we love to spend time there once a year, time permitting. Cheers,
  4. Again, building the kit with supplied parts (often plastic), with touch ups to follow, especially on the hull. Unfortunately a bit stalled as waiting to put together a large order of stuff from Cornwall Model boats... short on matching Admiralty paints in order to finish painting the hull (and acquire other fittings for my future project of an old vintage Mamoli Friesland kit which I purchased off of EBay- which surprise surprise is missing a few parts. Lucky that Dusek Models is able to supply the missing items via CMB).
  5. I did plank the deck and cabin floor boards with left over strips from an other kit that is finished... turned out looking good, especially with a couple coats of varathane. Not so good is how the bulwarks fit and became a real mess for me fast! Some layers of wood fill and touch ups and now looking a bit better... as exemplified in the post to follow.
  6. Was debating doing a build log for this older kit that was given to me from my brother, as he received it from a co-worker that had recently passed away, and wished to pass it to him and thus to me prior to his passing... It is classified as a beginner build but these "beginner" kits from Billing Boats are in my opinion so basic in design and parts and given the poor tolerances for fitting out of pieces and parts, that it in fact it is not a beginners kit. The high end large kits (now laser cut) with fitment being so perfect, that though classified as advanced, it perhaps could be qualified as much easier to build... anyway my thoughts. I decided to do the build and pass it back to my brother given the emotional connection is truly with him. My wife is Dutch descent and given my trips to Holland and having seen my fair share of Dutch river barges... I do find them absolutely beautiful! I have decided to build it completely out of the box with no upgrades with the exception of the sails. I started this in the fall and worked on it here and there... I did forgot to take some early pictures but this is what I have to show for... This thing was not easy to plank at the bow for me and given it is single planked construction, I knew really quickly that this was a plank and paint project... which all of the working Dutch barges' hulls are anyways - painted.
  7. It is probably "fitting" to change my topic from Mamoli Metal Fitting Oxidation to Mamoli Metal Fitting Degradation now that I know what the issue is/was... Lesson learned; Take your lead alloy fittings out of their plastic storage bags as soon as possible (in the old vintage kits).
  8. After some research, and also reading the reference listed in the post just before me in the category Metal Fittings (perhaps should have read it first before my query on MSW), I found out that; Wood releases acetic acid naturally and when in storage with lead fittings (as how Mamoli packaged their lead alloy fittings with wood), the lead alloy gets converted to lead acetate and additionally in the presence of CO2 (as in a sealed package without air exchange), the lead alloy gets converted to lead carbonate, which is the whitish deposit on the lead alloy fittings I pictured in my post above. My solution for cleanup was a 1:1 solution of household vinegar with water and some salt and with a tooth brush, brushing the deposits off with a thorough rinse of water, following of which is the results pictured below. The surface is marred but at least the fitting is still usable.
  9. I just found an old Mamoli Friesland kit on Ebay which I was able to acquire for a very good price BUT... some of the metal fittings seem to have a considerable amount of oxidation on their surfaces. The kit (based on the box art) is likely from the late 1970s or early 1980s. I presume the metal fittings in questions are lead alloys. My questions is how can I return the fitting to a proper state in order to use on the model and secondly, how can I treat the fitting so they don't degrade in the future? Please see the attached pictures and thank-you for any and all responses in advance!
  10. Looking great! I think old Mamoli kits were famous for missing strip wood and fittings. The old kits though make into excellent models though… Hopefully no “keeling” over until you are finished as you are doing an excellent job. Cheers!
  11. I am a relative newbie to the scratch build world and I must say there is no scratch build on MSW that comes close to the quality of workmanship I see on this build log. Incredible!
  12. Don’t think the guy that produced this video was a naval architect or naval scholar but nonetheless it was incredibly well produced and gave us a great 3D understanding of a working ship of the line. Best to take it for what it is and not needlessly question the video and it’s historical accuracy. Afterall it was published on Youtube!
  13. Name plate... Funny as the contrast between the letter and background is perfect to the naked eye but once the image is taken with the Iphone camera... contrast is lost (to a degree). Anyways... I am essentially done. I just have to tighten a couple rigging lines and present some final images later this week. At that time I will provide some final thoughts on the Mamoli kit of the Santa Maria.
  14. Here they are attached to the masts... Mamoli had short changed me on the 0.4 mm rigging thread. I have been careful with usage and barely saved enough to create enough rope coils for my rigging line belay points onto the pins. So I tied the flag poles to the top masts with 0.8 mm rigging thread (all that I have left) and thought it looked fine and walked by the model a dozen times and then one walk by and oh boy, the 0.8 mm line looks out of scale all of a sudden!
  15. I soaked the silk-screen/polyester flags in GAC 400 with some trepidation as I presumed GAC 400 is designed for natural fibres such as cotton. I draped them over an old sea shell while still wet, hoping to create some free forms in order to simulate the wind and wind gusts. With a hair dyer, while draped on the shell, dried them out and then with a hobby knife, gently peeled them off the shell... without success! So i just re wet them lightly with water and crumpled them up gently with my hands.
  16. Well, got a few final things done this past weekend. The kit supplied flags look very good to my eyes...
  17. I do have to tighten just a couple lines, so that is not bad. I have to fix a few lines creating a nice natural sag with regards to a few lines on the foresail that don't sag naturally at this time. I have to of course make and add all the rope coils but true to Mamoli, I will be short the 0.4 mm rigging line that is the vast majority of the rigging lines, to complete the task on the various pin rails on the decks.
  18. The following series of pictures are in order first, the spirit sail, the foresail, the main sail and top sail, and the lateen sail finally. I noticed with the GAC 400 that the results were much better with the smaller sail footprints as compared to the larger ones. Once some of the running rigging and sheet lines were added and tied off, I lost some of that "perfect" shape. Essentially I am done all the rigging at this time... just need to add the flags and other minor extra details.
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