mtdoramike

Here I be, hard at work

For a change of pace I went to work on the stern and quarter gallery decorations. I really liked Timmo's idea of the ochre/wood look with the blue, rather than the unlikely garish scheme Caldercraft shows. 
 
I did mine a little differently than Timmo. First, I prime all the parts followed by base painting with the Polly Scale colors I've been suing elsewhere on the build. Next I gloss coated with the airbrush, using Future floor polish, which is an acrylic polymer. Those of us who also build plastic models know how useful a product this is for gloss coating prior to decaling or weathering. Next, I applied a thin wash of burnt umber artist's oils which gave the very nice Caldercraft castings some depth. Next came a flat coat, again with the airbrush followed by drybrushing with lightened versions of the base colors to bring out the highlights. Finally, spare photo-etch runners were used to make window frames in the quarter galleries, another brilliant Timmo idea...

Hi all. It has been a long time since I created a build log, but I thought the Confederacy would be a good project for a log. This ship is my most ambitious ship. My last three builds in order was the Unicorn, Brig Eagle and small Bluenose. I posted some pics of these ships to show my past work.
 
Ok, as for the Confederacy. I have assembled the bulkhead former, pre-bent the rabbet, cut out the frames and the stem. I have included pics of the progress.
 
Thats it so far. Next up, install the rabbet, tapper the bulkhead former to the rabbet, sand and put the stem together.
 
Any comments or questions are very welcome!

Thanks Magee. The progress I made is small, (vacations and I had to order some things). Anyway I have fixed the errors that I found with the stern and fitted the window frames. (I still need to do some sanding)
 

 
 
I have made some small progress with the cabin too. When the things arrive I can continue to work on the stern window.
 

Here I be, hard at work

A little more progress made. I have been a bit under the weather as of late, but feeling better.  

The sails and the yards on the main mast are also in place...
 
Still the fore mast to go and the bowsprit yards.
And then all the rigging that goes with it.
It keeps me still busy for the time being.......
 
Sjors
 
 

A little more progress made. I have been a bit under the weather as of late, but feeling better.  

I would also like to give a few pointers, for instance, if anyone else is building this kit and aren't at this stage yet, I would highly recommend that they PAINT the gun port liners BEFORE installing them. It makes for a cleaner finish. But you will have to make sure your bulwarks and upper hull are sanded and finished off before installing the gun port liners.
 
Secondly, try and cut and piece most of the rubbing strakes or hull molding when installing across the gun ports because this wood is some really tough wood to cut. I used a dremel cut off wheel and hobby knife and went through like 10 hobby knife blades as well as numerous steel backed razor blades. I laid mine in one solid piece. This option is a quick and easier way of doing it, but only if you are painting your model and not for natural wood finished models.
 
Also, just as Lawrence stated in his build log of this same model that you have to be mindful of the final position of the stern castle, which has to be tilted enough to insure that the remaining upper most gun ports near the side windows will have enough space to be cut out. I had to put a wood spacer on the outside edge of the upper stern floor in order to push the stern castle back about 2-3mm's and hopefully this will give enough clearance for the last two gun ports. The only reason I knew of this issue was that Lawrence had made note of it in his build log. It will keep you from having to rip the stern off several times to reposition it.
 
Mike         

Thank Lawrence, if it comes out half as nice as your Vic, I will be pleased. Yeah, they weren't to snappy with their emails, especially the one where they said they would mail them out to me. But I have to hand it to Latina, they sent me the missing items even though I told them that I couldn't swear that the hammock stays weren't in the package originally since I was a bit careless on the inventory. But the main sail was definitely missing. 

A little more progress made. I have been a bit under the weather as of late, but feeling better.  

A little more progress made. I have been a bit under the weather as of late, but feeling better.  

A little more progress made. I have been a bit under the weather as of late, but feeling better.  

I finally got the gun ports stripped of all the old lining and then painted and reinstalled the RED lining around the gun ports. I think it highlights the gun ports and makes them stand out better. I had to buy additional wood for this because the kit can with just the right amount to line them once and that was about it. Now, the real Victory gun ports aren't painted red around them and the yellow goes all the way up to the edge of the gun ports. But I like the results of the red better.   

I finally received the Hammock Stays and the large Main sail for the Victory today. My faith has been restored in Artesania Latina. So I hope I have everything needed to complete her, if not, I will cross that bridge when I get there. So all in all it took about 5-6 weeks to get the parts from them.
 
 
Mike  

Beautiful work, I love the look of the cannon, mine always look like they came out of a crackerjack box:)
 
 
Mike

Beautiful planking job.

I was reading through some of these posts and WOW, I can't believe some of the remarks. First off, model ship kits are just that a kit. There is nothing museum quality about them and nothing unique from model to model either. I know this going in and knew it from the first kit I ever built. But a ship model kit gets the builder to eventually realize that it's not just about building the kit, it's also about the adventure and experience of it. Most kit's take any where from five hundred to thousands of hours to build, but after your first kit build, you realize that to extend this warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment, you have to do a bit of research. Yep I know, that dreaded (S) word that we all hated in school (studying). Then after a few models under your belt, you can really start to get motivated and begin kit bashing or take the other major leap and go to scratch building, which could produce a museum quality model depending on the time, effort and yes, research.
 
But me, there is nothing like breaking open the crisp plastic wrapping of a new ship model kit that the UPS man dropped off at my door. I can spend hours upon hours just going through the kit, looking at all the things inside the box. So no, I agree that some if not most aren't great, accurate or even a decent representation of the original. But I don't care, so please don't spoil it for me      

Just remember when building, there are no mistakes, just happy coincidences

Thirty or so years ago, when I started building wooden ship models, it was pretty difficult to research a ship. The Internet didn't exist so going to the local library was pretty much all you could do. You had to rely on the honesty and integrity of the manufacturer to a large extent. Nowadays, because of the internet, the world is at our fingertips and it is so much easier to chose a kit with confidence. I tend to do a lot of research into the history of a ship and look at a lot of pictures and photos ( including those on this site) before I hand over my hard earned dollar. In this way I am reasonably sure I am going to get something that did really exist an is reasonably accurate. I normally keep a folder on my computer where every tiny bit of information on the history and construction of my current build is stored and I update it as I go. The 'Endeavour' is on my build list and I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to go aboard the Endeavour Replica recently. I took about 200 photos!!! If I think some component of the kit s not quite right or is poorly made, I try to scratch build it. This just adds another dimension to the hobby. I know that fictitious, and poorly designed models are out there, but I don't really care. I won't be buying one of them.

My first 4 builds will be ficticious ships due to my naming each after one of my kids, that being said, my "Hannah" as based upon the Schooner Hannah but the accuracy is limited by my kit bashing and ability, since the kit is very limited at best and I didn't feel ready for a full "Hahn" scratch build though I think it will be a fair representation of the vessel.
If I were to try to build a "museum quality historically accurate" vessel, the stress of trying match everything perfectly would likely turn me off somewhat from the hobby during the learning stages of these first builds, but as I develop technique and learn my limits, I will likely take up the challenge of a true historical build in the future.
 
Ken

I was reading through some of these posts and WOW, I can't believe some of the remarks. First off, model ship kits are just that a kit. There is nothing museum quality about them and nothing unique from model to model either. I know this going in and knew it from the first kit I ever built. But a ship model kit gets the builder to eventually realize that it's not just about building the kit, it's also about the adventure and experience of it. Most kit's take any where from five hundred to thousands of hours to build, but after your first kit build, you realize that to extend this warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment, you have to do a bit of research. Yep I know, that dreaded (S) word that we all hated in school (studying). Then after a few models under your belt, you can really start to get motivated and begin kit bashing or take the other major leap and go to scratch building, which could produce a museum quality model depending on the time, effort and yes, research.
 
But me, there is nothing like breaking open the crisp plastic wrapping of a new ship model kit that the UPS man dropped off at my door. I can spend hours upon hours just going through the kit, looking at all the things inside the box. So no, I agree that some if not most aren't great, accurate or even a decent representation of the original. But I don't care, so please don't spoil it for me      

I was reading through some of these posts and WOW, I can't believe some of the remarks. First off, model ship kits are just that a kit. There is nothing museum quality about them and nothing unique from model to model either. I know this going in and knew it from the first kit I ever built. But a ship model kit gets the builder to eventually realize that it's not just about building the kit, it's also about the adventure and experience of it. Most kit's take any where from five hundred to thousands of hours to build, but after your first kit build, you realize that to extend this warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment, you have to do a bit of research. Yep I know, that dreaded (S) word that we all hated in school (studying). Then after a few models under your belt, you can really start to get motivated and begin kit bashing or take the other major leap and go to scratch building, which could produce a museum quality model depending on the time, effort and yes, research.
 
But me, there is nothing like breaking open the crisp plastic wrapping of a new ship model kit that the UPS man dropped off at my door. I can spend hours upon hours just going through the kit, looking at all the things inside the box. So no, I agree that some if not most aren't great, accurate or even a decent representation of the original. But I don't care, so please don't spoil it for me      

I was reading through some of these posts and WOW, I can't believe some of the remarks. First off, model ship kits are just that a kit. There is nothing museum quality about them and nothing unique from model to model either. I know this going in and knew it from the first kit I ever built. But a ship model kit gets the builder to eventually realize that it's not just about building the kit, it's also about the adventure and experience of it. Most kit's take any where from five hundred to thousands of hours to build, but after your first kit build, you realize that to extend this warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment, you have to do a bit of research. Yep I know, that dreaded (S) word that we all hated in school (studying). Then after a few models under your belt, you can really start to get motivated and begin kit bashing or take the other major leap and go to scratch building, which could produce a museum quality model depending on the time, effort and yes, research.
 
But me, there is nothing like breaking open the crisp plastic wrapping of a new ship model kit that the UPS man dropped off at my door. I can spend hours upon hours just going through the kit, looking at all the things inside the box. So no, I agree that some if not most aren't great, accurate or even a decent representation of the original. But I don't care, so please don't spoil it for me      

I was reading through some of these posts and WOW, I can't believe some of the remarks. First off, model ship kits are just that a kit. There is nothing museum quality about them and nothing unique from model to model either. I know this going in and knew it from the first kit I ever built. But a ship model kit gets the builder to eventually realize that it's not just about building the kit, it's also about the adventure and experience of it. Most kit's take any where from five hundred to thousands of hours to build, but after your first kit build, you realize that to extend this warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment, you have to do a bit of research. Yep I know, that dreaded (S) word that we all hated in school (studying). Then after a few models under your belt, you can really start to get motivated and begin kit bashing or take the other major leap and go to scratch building, which could produce a museum quality model depending on the time, effort and yes, research.
 
But me, there is nothing like breaking open the crisp plastic wrapping of a new ship model kit that the UPS man dropped off at my door. I can spend hours upon hours just going through the kit, looking at all the things inside the box. So no, I agree that some if not most aren't great, accurate or even a decent representation of the original. But I don't care, so please don't spoil it for me