mtdoramike

Thank you for the recommendations, yes, I have ordered from Nature Coast Hobbies for years and agree, they are outstanding.

Beautiful job Pete. I'll bet you will get a lot smoother hull that way as well.

It's about 3 weeks into emailing Artesania Latina about the missing parts from the Victory kit and so far all I'm getting is a two step and a kiss. They keep telling me that they are working on it. I seriously think they are just hoping that I will go away. I have found two etched brass Hammock stay sheets, both for Victory's, but both not of my scale @1:84. The two etched brass sheets at both located at Cornwall, but one is 1:78 scale and the other is 1:98 scale. I'm leaning more towards the 1:78 scale since it's closer to the 1:84 scale of my Victory. Any recommendations on the two?

Thanks,

Mike 

I'm a bit dumb founded here, I have been checking on-line for ship model fittings sources in the U.S. and I'm finding very few. Where have all the modeling sources gone, what has happened to Model Expo? I went to their site, where I have dropped thousands and probably closer to tens of thousands of dollars over the years and was stunned at the lack of offerings from ship model fittings to kits. I've been out of model building for about 10 years, but I didn't expect this drastic of a decline. Heck, when I was heavy into modeling, there weren't all of these cool resource sites like this one, the only one that I can remember quite a bit was the Model Shipways forums and chat room, which I spent quite a bit of time in. But back then, there wasn't the amount of modelers that there are today, they were few and far between or at least it seemed that way to me.

So anyway, anyone have any fairly local resources for ship model fittings in the U.S. I hate to order from Cornwall in England, but they seem to have quite a few resources over seas than what we do here. Let me clarify that I don't have any issues with Cornwall, I would just rather keep my spending closer to home and help out the not so local economy.  

Thanks,

Mike    

 I don't know about "bass turd" child, but probably red headed step child at the minimum

I have to ask here, What do you mean you "Ruined a Constructo kit"? What did you do to ruin a Constructo kit? You also must realize that although solid hull kits appear to be easier, they are not. With a plank on frame kit, the frames or bulkheads are already shaped for you. But on a solid hull kit, they are only slightly faired and must be finished by the builder. You should have templates in your kit that will assist in fairing the hull, which is the downfall of most who attempt a solid hull going into the build with the thought of it being easier. It's called over sanding and over carving the hull. The best way to avoid this is slow as you go and check, recheck and triple check your work as you go.

Good luck,

Mike  

It's turning out fantastic and your use of the sticks in original, but that is what we have to do at times. I'm always looking at things and wondering how I could use that item in a model hahahahahaha. I'm kind of wishing now that I had went with the Constructo version and modified it. Although I like the Latina version, I'm missing numerous parts, some of which would be difficult at best to replicate such as the brass hammock stays. I'm missing the entire sheet of those, several sails, several different pieces of wood just to list a few things that I know of right now. I have been getting the run around from Artesania Latina for the last couple of weeks trying to get just the hammock stays and possibly the large main sail, the rest I can fabricate. But so far I have passed along from pillar to post and no straight yes or no answer from them as yet. To replace the hammock stays brass sheet with an optional one will cost about $60.00 and must be ordered from England.

I first emailed Ana, who it seems referred my email to Rebeca, who has since referred me to another associate. So I keep getting passed along without getting an answer one way or the other. All I want is an answer whether or not they are going to send me the parts, if I have to pay for them then I will without question because if I don't get them from AL, I will have to get an off scale version from either Model Dockyard or Cornwall at either 1:98 scale or 1:78 scale for the etched brass sheets of hammock cranes.  

Thanks Lawrence, it's not looking good as for getting the Hammock cranes brass sheet from Latina. I'm kind of getting the run around or the blow off from them. They have told me that they have referred my missing parts issue to another associate, who is working on it, but needs a few days. All I'm wanting to know is, are they going to send me the parts or not. If not then I need to order some else where. I'm going to give them a few more days and then if nothing, I will go else where.  

Wonderful work, your attention to detail is amazing.

Absolutely beautiful work. I can't get over how beautiful that wood is. You are doing fantastic work. But remember, don't over think things, (I have to tell myself this all the time) and remember this is YOUR representation of the model or ship as to how you see it. You aren't building the model for a museum, but rather for you and others to enjoy and sometimes mistakes can be happy accidents as long as you are happy with the results.  

But I have been there on more than one occasion when it comes to having to do something two and three times. What kills me is when I finish the third construction on a particular piece only to realize that I liked it better the way it was the first time. Also the more you mess up and have to correct something on the model is just more time that you will get to spend with it because one day, like a child, it will be all grown up and finished, then what? I always looked at my models as my babies and when finished although it brought joy and satisfaction, it also brought a bit of sadness and a tear to my eye.

Mike    

Beautiful castings, I would have thought that Billings would have supplied plastic for the detailing rather than wood though.   

Well, three days since initial contact with Artesania Latina and no further word yet on what they intend to do about the missing parts. I will give them a few more days and if nothing by then, I will order the Hammock Stay brass sheet from Cornwall.

Yes, those are very nice instructions for sure.

If you think that is a great price, check out this link to Oakridge Hobbies, which is where I purchased the Victory from and they have the Artesania Latina HMS Surprise for the same price I paid for the Victory kit @ $567.00. Also at that time they offered free shipping so I don't know if that still applies or not. http://www.oakridgehobbies.com/hobby-shop/plastic-wood-hobby-model-kits/artesania-latina-tall-ships-models-wooden-boat-models-wooden-ship-model-kits/artesania-latina-h-m-s-surprise-1796-wooden-ship-model-kit.html

I'm still having such trepidation over painting this model. It's such a waste of beautiful wood. If It were a model that I were building for myself, I would have opted to go natural wood on this particular kit or I would have purchased another Vic kit that requires painting. But since this is a donation, I wanted to paint her up.   

I have all the gun ports lined and now starting on the stern castle section. I'm trying to follow Lawrence's build as close to as possible refer to: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/2241-hms-victory-by-canoe21-lawrence-al-scale-184/page-4 hence the design on the stern castle flooring. But I'm also trying to stay as true to the kit as possible with limited modifications. I notched into the hull section coming back toward the Stern flooring because I want to leave as much of the sides as possible for added support for the windows or at least until I get them. 

My wife complained the other day when she asked for me to rub the back of her neck about how rough my fingers felt and that I needed to use something to get rid of the glue. I said "NEVER, I wear my glued up fingers proudly and like it's a badge of honor". Then she began following me around the house with a piece of my own sandpaper.

Thanks drag, I'll keep updating.,

Well, I heard back from Artesania Latina today and they said they needed a reference number for the main sail and then would check on the etched brass hammock stay sheet and then get back to me with a cost and shipping fees. So they aren't offering up to replace the missing parts at THEIR expense, even though I scanned my shipping receipt for the Victory model which had the purchase date on it. I found a suitable replacement etched brass hammock stay sheet at Cornwall, it's a tad bigger at like 1:78 scale versus 1:84, but it would be doable. If I have buy my own from Cornwall, that would run me about $65.00.

But I'm holding off on order from Cornwall until I get some kind of confirmation back from AL as to what their position is and whether or not they can supply the missing brass sheet. The sail I'm not concerned about, I will most likely not put sails on the Vic anyway, but if I decide to, I can make another sail since they supplied the pattern.      

Upon checking I find that I am missing the brass sheet #22900-B which has all the brass hammock stays. I can't recall seeing them on my initial quick inspection, but I can't swear that I didn't lose it either. So I will not besmirch AL's name regarding the missing part. But this is a fairly big deal because of the amount of Hammock stays required for this model. I can't find them in the US, only in Great Britain, so replacing them will be a bit expensive at about $75.00US. I have contacted Artesania Latina about the missing brass sheet as well as the missing main sail, but I don't expect a response from the. I emailed them a month ago about the missing main sail and got no response. I also tried to order the missing hammock main stays from AL's web site, but since I'm not fluid in Spanish, that was a dead issue. I could get some brass wire and try and fashion my own, but that would be quite time consuming and I'm not sure how well they would turn out.   

I'm now in the process of lining the cannon openings, oh joy, there are like a hundred of them. I keep saying I'm going to build the cannon(s) when not working on the model itself. But I have yet to do it other than build & paint the cannon carriages.

Hi Keith, I usually seal the paint with a clear coat because I usually use latex enamel paint/art&craft paint and I have found that if the hull isn't sealed with a clear coat, some of the paint will pull off with the copper foil if you misalign a copper strip and try and replace it. The clear coat prevents this as well as smoothing over any brush strokes left from the paint brush on the Latex layer. I hate to use oil base paint because I have a small work shop and I have a heart problem so the fumes from the paint make it difficult for me.

Well I got the hull puttied, primed and painted brown, in case a copper plate isn't placed exact and the hull shines through hahahaha. I have a couple of coats of paint on the hull, which will later get sprayed with a clear satin laquer or poly to seal it thoroughly before copper plating. I also found while checking the wood dowels for the masts that the dowel for the main mast is warped like a snake sun bathing. Fortunately these will be painted so no harm there. I will just have to replace them with cheap dowels from my local hardware store. The odds of finding walnut dowels in my area would be useless.   

Wow, that stern section looks gorgeous. Wonderful job.