mtdoramike

Well the USS Missouri aka: Big Mo is coming along nicely. It's coming down to the wire. I have had a love hate realationship with the brass PE etching. When it works and installs easily it's great, but when it doesn't, it's one of those days. 

Well the USS Missouri aka: Big Mo is coming along nicely. It's coming down to the wire. I have had a love hate realationship with the brass PE etching. When it works and installs easily it's great, but when it doesn't, it's one of those days. 

Well the USS Missouri aka: Big Mo is coming along nicely. It's coming down to the wire. I have had a love hate realationship with the brass PE etching. When it works and installs easily it's great, but when it doesn't, it's one of those days. 

Well the USS Missouri aka: Big Mo is coming along nicely. It's coming down to the wire. I have had a love hate realationship with the brass PE etching. When it works and installs easily it's great, but when it doesn't, it's one of those days. 

Should have also added I would like to be 2nd in line if things don't work out. 34667.
 
Later Tim

Seems there are several of us Florida folks on this site.
 
Nice to also see the sharing. 
 
Later Tim

what is the shipping to 32757? I would be willing accept it.
 
mike

Chris is right, I have built a few Le Clerc Kits in my time and although great finds if kit collecting, but kits of today are a bit better, at least better fittings. I have sold one of these finished kits in the past and received $200.00 for one of them, the other I built as a gift for a friend. The difference between your model and the one I built were the sails. I used sail cloth and not wood. To me, your model is worth what someone is willing to pay you for it, which in my estimation would be a couple hundred dollars on a good day. To me, it makes a nice shelf queen especially with the wooden sails, which allow the sails to appeared billowed as if in full sail, which is very hard to achieve  with cloth sails.
 
If it were my model, I would restore it and charish it just due to the painstaking efforts that someone went through just on the wood sails alone. 

Chris is right, I have built a few Le Clerc Kits in my time and although great finds if kit collecting, but kits of today are a bit better, at least better fittings. I have sold one of these finished kits in the past and received $200.00 for one of them, the other I built as a gift for a friend. The difference between your model and the one I built were the sails. I used sail cloth and not wood. To me, your model is worth what someone is willing to pay you for it, which in my estimation would be a couple hundred dollars on a good day. To me, it makes a nice shelf queen especially with the wooden sails, which allow the sails to appeared billowed as if in full sail, which is very hard to achieve  with cloth sails.
 
If it were my model, I would restore it and charish it just due to the painstaking efforts that someone went through just on the wood sails alone. 

Bateaux LeClerc is a defunct brand of model kits once manufactured in Canada. As far as I know, there is nothing notable about their kits to set them apart from others that date back to the same period. The state of kit manufacturing has come a long, long way since then.

You're doing a great job!  I really enjoyed developing that kit and wish we still had the original display model.  It's at the Naval War College in RI.  The catwalks/torpedo boat skids are a fun detail.

Progress Photos
 
At this point the superstructures are mostly finished and the guns finished, up to page 24 in the instruction manual.  
 
Ahead is the interesting cat walk and other photo etch work.
 
Bow view looking aft.

Amidships looking aft.

Amidships looking forward.

Stern View

Stern view looking forward.  Thanks for your thoughts and comments.

absolutely beautiful work

absolutely beautiful work

absolutely beautiful work

absolutely beautiful work

Hi All,.
It's been a while since I last posted but time for an update....
 
Main Deck perimeter Railing complete.
I procrastinated for quite some time about this.
 
Supplied Stanchions used eventually and the  dreaded Mono-Filament material. 
As much as I tried to thread Stanchions, (After a few test-fitted), it was almost impossible!! I had a breath and decided to dill out all of the Stanchion holes with a 0.3mm drill, I had pre painted these also.
So, I don't know if the Amati production kit has holes of greater than 0.3mm. Rod, (rvchima), threaded his Stanchions in-situ with no issues, he said the task was easy. (That was the inference anyway.)
 
I decided to drill all the holes around the Deck with a default of 9.5mm, there were a few exceptions.
 
So 62 to Midships and 66 to the Stern, the Stanchions were threaded on to the Mono-Filament, three threads, top, middle bottom and then plugged into the holes drilled.
 
The join, Midships required a bit of fast thinking, I drilled out a couple of Stanchions to 0.45mm to accept the threads from the Bow and threads from the Stern sections of railing, a touch of CA an done. (I'll attach some photos of these.
 
It took some time but not as much time as trying to thread Stanchions in-situ.
 
And yes, I received the Eduard PE Chain Link Railing, nice but not suitable for this beastie. 🙂
 
Not much left to do:
Paint Touch-ups Stern Flagstaff Anchor Buoys Accommodation Ladders (Probably) I should also mention that my good lady helped me in no small way with the Railing. (I still have limited use of my right arm.... ☹️
 
Cheers....HOF.
 
Photos:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I have only built models for myself and have never entered any contests nor do I think any of my models would ever make it to a museum, but I am very satisfied with the way they turn out. I really enjoy the building aspect of this hobby so unless something is really wrong with a model I'm okay with it. That said, I do want my SOFS to look good when finished. I'm glad that I have joined MSW because with the help that you fellow ship builders are willing to give I think I'll be successful.  At this time I'm just working on fitting the bulkheads to the keel. Thanks again guys. 

It is not necessary to scratch build to make a beautiful model.  No one said that.  It IS necessary to scratch build to build a historically ACCURATE model of HMS Sovereign of the Seas.

If I built soley for myself, I would agree with you, but I don't. I build for others and after building well over 200 models over the past 25 years, the vast majority from kits, I haven't found any kit that didn't produce an acceptable model. Now were they museum quality? nope, you can't get a museum quality model from a kit, no matter what you do. They are a dime a dozen and shelf queens. Now have I come across a few kits that needed a little changing to make it acceptable to me and the new owner? Yep, but few and far inbetween. To me, it's more the research of the subject that produces the best representation rather than the kit itself.    
 
Boat building can actually be a team hobby, 35-40% (and growing) of the models that I have built were actually orphaned kits or builds that were started by builders with good intentions but short of the follow through. Kind of like tag your it, then I finish what they started and make them all that they can be even to the point of rebuilding what they had done to make it acceptable. 

If I built soley for myself, I would agree with you, but I don't. I build for others and after building well over 200 models over the past 25 years, the vast majority from kits, I haven't found any kit that didn't produce an acceptable model. Now were they museum quality? nope, you can't get a museum quality model from a kit, no matter what you do. They are a dime a dozen and shelf queens. Now have I come across a few kits that needed a little changing to make it acceptable to me and the new owner? Yep, but few and far inbetween. To me, it's more the research of the subject that produces the best representation rather than the kit itself.    
 
Boat building can actually be a team hobby, 35-40% (and growing) of the models that I have built were actually orphaned kits or builds that were started by builders with good intentions but short of the follow through. Kind of like tag your it, then I finish what they started and make them all that they can be even to the point of rebuilding what they had done to make it acceptable. 

Amen brother!

Well at $400.00 for an SOS kit, that was a steal of a deal even back then. I build mainly by plans, instructions are at best confusing and at worst down right misleading.

I maybe the only one to say, build it. You have it, start a build log first off and ask questions, post pictures of your progress. There are videos on Youtube regarding the building process of the SOS, which will help you tremendously. I also don 't agree with the need for scratch building or bashing of this kit in order to build a beautiful example of the SOS. Majority of kits will produce exceptable models without scratching or bashing unless your attempts are to make it your own.
 
Disclaimer: Take the above advice with a grain of salt because it comes from someone who hides in the wings, waiting for guys that bite off more than they can chew and later swoop in and adopt those orphaned kits that wide eyed first time builders attempt and then later drop like a hot rock. The SOS is one of the orphaned kits on my list to adopt. 

I maybe the only one to say, build it. You have it, start a build log first off and ask questions, post pictures of your progress. There are videos on Youtube regarding the building process of the SOS, which will help you tremendously. I also don 't agree with the need for scratch building or bashing of this kit in order to build a beautiful example of the SOS. Majority of kits will produce exceptable models without scratching or bashing unless your attempts are to make it your own.
 
Disclaimer: Take the above advice with a grain of salt because it comes from someone who hides in the wings, waiting for guys that bite off more than they can chew and later swoop in and adopt those orphaned kits that wide eyed first time builders attempt and then later drop like a hot rock. The SOS is one of the orphaned kits on my list to adopt.