Ryland Craze

Welcome Rob, there are many of us here who have found wooden ship modelling after years of plastic/resin builds in other subjects. 👋
I am sure you will feel at home here on MSW.  😀

Thank you Dave, Ben and Dave for your friendly reception. I hope this will be a win win situation, as I have plenty of knowledge to share with plastic kits and an engineering background and a curious wandering mind.

Cheers Rob

Hi Rob, welcome aboard. YEARS of talent and experience here to help your shipbuilding in any way! 👍😀

Welcome to the wooden model addiction club!

Welcome Rob, it will be wonderful to have your experience available to us all.
 
Dave

A warm hello to all the members here and a big thank you to the Admins, to accept me in your midth.
My name is Robert and I'm living on the Canary Islands, a dream to live near the sea, which I fulfilled some years ago. I was born in West Berlin (Germany) some decades ago.
As I'm German, English is not my mothers tongue and I hope, I can make myself understood here. I speak some Spanish too, but this seems also not very helpful here.
 
I build plastic  model kits since I was a kid, with a long break, between the age from 25 to 45. After having a lot of stress at the latter age, I found plastic modelling was a perfect release for that nagging pressure and a great way to get balanced and relaxed again, besides different types of sports, so I started again.
There were not a lot of ships build by me, with only a few exceptions, but the maritime sector always fascinated me. I read my Hornblower and others, when young, I'm an active surfer, bodyboarder and swimmer.

Since some years, I'm a very active member in the partner forum Large Scale Modeler (under the same name), which is a modelling home for me and I show a lot of work in progress threads and discuss a lot with the members there. I always liked LSM, because it's open for every scale and subject, with an emphasis on larger scales naturally. I like to jump between subjects and build planes, armor, cars and motorbikes, sci-fi and steampunk and a few ships.

What drives me here, is that I started to build my first wooden ship build recently. That's not entirely true, as I half build a wooden Kutter before and built a wooden RC raceboat in my twenties.

Three month ago I started to build the Duchess of Kingston from Chris Watton and I wrote a build log on LSM, where I got a lot of help and response. Now, reaching the mysterious point of rigging in the build, I decided, it's a good time to surround me with the complete knowledge here and hope to receive some help, when needed.
I always think of Forums as two way information. Naturally as a relative beginner to the subject, I' cant help with the special knowledge in wooden ship modelling to much, but I have a lot to give too, modelling wise. I know about airbrushing, working with photoetch and resin, plastic kits in all their aspects and not the least something about photographing, sometimes not so easy with model kits.
In plastic modelling, one of the most interesting aspects to me, is depicting materials as best as possible, be it metal, wood, cloth, ..., in their various conditions over time and wear.
When building the DoK, I found, that a modern designed kit needs more from my learned techniques, than was the case with the way older Kutter kit, That was a great relief for me, because I did not feel completely lost and was very eager to learn all I needed to build the DoK.

I like to challenge myself and learn new things permanently and I have to say, that the Duchess of Kingston build was so enjoyable, that it definitely will not be my last wooden ship model.
 
Again, thank you for letting me into MSW and feel free to discuss everything with me.
 
Cheers Rob

My name is Robert and I'm a new member here on MSW. I introduced myself here and thankfully got a very nice reception.
 
 
Three month ago, I started to build the Duchess of Kingston from Vanguard Models, my first 'real' wooden ship build and wrote a build log on the more plastic orientated partner forum Large Scale Modeler.
 
https://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/14865-duchess-of-kingston-beauty-of-the-seas-wooden-sailing-ship-164/

I will continue the build log in both forums and hope to receive some of your expertise and help, when needed. I completed the hull with all the deck assemblies lately and have to start the dreaded rigging, an area, where I have only experiences through putting the strings into large scale WWI era planes.
 
I hope I will not bore you with the umpteenth log of a Duchess of Kingston build, but the kit itself is so well designed, that it motivated me around the sharpest cliffs, I had to manage to get to this point. The DoK is buildable by a relative beginner, with some experience and patience under the belt.
 
BTW: thanks to @glennard2523, @rafine, @desalgu and @Rustyj, whose experiences with their builds I absorbed. I got many inspirations from other members here too, but followed your builds closely.
 
I will start my log here by showing you where I actually am with the build. If you have questions about the former build stages, please follow the link above or ask here.
 
The last thing I did was building up my second planked hull, in this case the 18ft cutter from Chris Watton, as I will try to integrate it onto the deck of the Duchess. I like a busy deck and if I can manage to get this fiddly boat done, it will be added.
 

 
The Duchess of Kingston itself looks like on the following pictures. It's 99% kit build with only a few little variations. I added some basic rigging for the cannons and some brass outlets for the pumps. Some parts were refined a bit to fit better into the design.

Except some areas of concern, the build was straightforward, trouble free and very rewarding. I had some problems with the stern fascia, which I bent damp into shape, only to learn that the size increases or decreases by more than 5mm depending on the humidity of the air. I finally glued the part in with some supports and lot of CA glue. The deck railing proved to be very brittle , but somehow, I finally fiddled them into place in one piece. The rest of the build was curse free and pure fun.
 





 

 

 

 

 
Cheers Rob
 
 
 
 
 

Several things to take note of in this photo:
I decided not to glaze the windows behind the cockpit. There's nothing of interest to see in the compartment, and cutting out the printed "glass" panels would leave a very narrow and weak strip right next to where the sharpest bend in the exterior skin is -- that's a potentially deadly combination. Plus, the skin fit is very tight, and adding the glazing would make the fit worse. There's a slight alignment error, which you can spot at the place where the wing's trailing edge will eventually meet the fuselage. There was little to nothing I could do about this -- the dorsal and ventral alignment tick marks matched perfectly. The opposite side matches perfectly, too, so correcting this side would only throw off the other side. Oh, well. Worse than the slight alignment error is the fact that the colors on the next fuselage section, cut from a different parts sheet, don't match those on the previous section. You can see the difference in the photo -- it's not a trick of the lighting, and it's more apparent in real life. The blue on the forward section has a definite greenish tint, while the aft section is a truer blue. Since some of the fuselage skins are printed on one sheet, while the rest are on the second sheet, this mismatch will be seen elsewhere on the fuselage. It's kind of a bummer, and it's a printing error, so there's really nothing to be done about it.
 
Cheers!

Hi Fred and welcome to Model Ship World.  I really enjoy the work modelers do with the miniature figures.  I look forward to your build log.

I havent really checked lately.  But its an ongoing effort.    It is always a concern and there isnt much anyone can do about it.  This project is not yet complete and my guess is they would wait until it is complete.  I have however found out about at least three other works by my friends and colleagues which are being pirated as I write this.  They are currently in progress in China  right now.  
 
pirated from Seawatch books authors primarily.   What a shame.  
 
Chuck

There will be no banana shaped keel on this, or any of my new kits. I have said this numerous times before, but I could not have designed these in this way if ply was my only alternative, thickness tolerances are comical, and with MDF, it is kind of 'homogenous', so much easier to sand, with no harder and softer parts to take into account. The problem with ply is that the best stuff is not only very expensive, but also an absolute pig to sand, no fun. Then you get the cheaper crap that is next to useless except for the basest of kits that people start, thinking they got a bargain, and end up never finishing it.
 
I know some still worry and some email about the health aspects when using MDF. I send them all the certificates of conformity. The UK supplier of the MDF also supply that exact same grade MDF to UK schools and universities. There are grades of this material (like ply), and I always make sure I get the safest (as I too sand this stuff, and laser cut it, day in a day out). 
 
I cannot wait to see Jim's model in its full livery!

It's a no-brainer! Ply wouldn't really work on this as the tolerances needed for so many Lego slots would throw the construction out, especially the framed gun ports. MDF tolerances are much tighter. 

I know that some people prefer the supersteady plywood construction but once I started to figure out the MDF construction on my Speedy I was hooked on this. Everything gets directly in the right position, no measuring and fitting etc. Its like building Lego. And the best thing of it all, sanding is like melting butter. Later I started working on my Diana plywood hull (also Chris construction, but over 20 years ago) and it was a b*tch in comparison. Tweeking, measuring, bending and I dont think its completly straight. And because the bulkheads were so far apart sanding is really heavy and it even creates that kind of scratchnoise like Quints nails on the blackboard.... 

And from an enginering point of view, I just luv seeing all of the hundreds of MDF pieces going together and suddenly forms the Indy hull! 🙂 Keep it up, james!       

Welcome aboard indeed, Fred.

Fred, welcome to MSW. Glad to have you aboard. 

Thank you John - glad to be here!

Dzięki!
 
I didn't know those card modeling magazines were even known outside of Poland (and some Eastern European countries). I remember picking one, a model of a submarine when I was a kid (it was somewhere mid 90s I think). Sadly, I was way too young to tackle it. I tried, but I gave up after my hull looked like a big mess full of holes from bad cuts and seeping glue elsewhere Might need to give one of them a try in the future. Also, if you'd (or anyone else) would need a help with translating anything from those Polish magazines, I'm more than happy to help.
 
I will make my build log topic in scratch build section on the weekend. Then I will have some time and good light to shoot at least some semi-decent photos and write in more detail about the project.

Hello Fred, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'.
 
John

Witam!
 
Sounds like a scratch project to me.
 
As one of our forums die-hard card modelers, I have a great appreciation for Poland's contributions to the art of modele kartonowe.
 
Enjoy your stay!

Hi!
 
I'm Fred (well, not really, but my true name is pretty much unpronounceable in English, so I go by Fred ). Grown up in Poland, lived in UK, now I'm in the US. On the beginning of 2020 I stumbled into wargaming as a hobby, but pandemic being what it was I moved from playing the games with others, to just enjoying the diorama-like aspects of the hobby with making terrain and miniature painting (while planning and playing some solo games). Then few months ago, I don't remember how exactly, I stumbled upon the story of HMS Terror which lead me to ship modelling through Tom's Modelling in Motion HMS Terror videos. I kinda got hooked.
 
However, my skills being what they are, it will be a while before I can attempt something that complex. Instead, I decided to start with something different - I found a 3d printable model of SS Venture from 2005 King Kong that would fit with the miniatures and terrain I'm currently making (kind of alternative history pulp adventure). So, I printed the hull scaled to 1/100ish (what I use for miniatures) and plan to make my own decks/rest of the ship through a combination of scratch-building and 3d printing. I hope to make it a playable piece, but closer to an actual diorama/model in detail and finish.
 
Currently the first hull part (I'm splitting the hull into top and bottom to make it more usable for wargaming) is drying its primer and I'm researching more about tramp steamers so I can model some of the details (will probably ask for some help/resources on this front, as I'm pretty much a layman when it comes to maritime things). Also, looking through the builds on this forum - I'm already learning a lot great stuff!
 
Now my first question is, if I'm redesigning/kit-bashing this 3d printed model, should I put my build in Model Kit or Scratch built projects?
 
Edit: Now thinking about it, I hope that the above project is within the scope of this site. While I'm definitely shooting for realism in the build, I will make some concessions to make it a bit more playable (e.g. making the ship a bit wider than the 3d model linked above to have more space for miniatures). I can always wait with my first build topic until the next, more proper, model.

Cog brings up a really good point mind you, I managed to get a very hard to find 1/350 Heian Maru on the Facebooks for under $100 AUD (about 71 USD) which I will do in the future with a bunch of subs nestled beside her. So the sub thing led to another thing!!! 

Having a bracing time with Terror! The foreyard brace is rigged but not belayed along with the main topsail and topgallant yard braces. Also the ships boats in the waist are in place (still not sure about the sled but will leave it).


take care everyone and thanks for looking in. and the likes and comments.
 
Keith

Why I love your Company sir!  Thanks!

Still playing with paint. Finishes are my least favorite part of a build because they do so much to convey the final impression and I feel that I am never able to find the right hue I am looking for or I get it too thin or too thick etc. Suffice to say, I am still learning A LOT in this area. 
 
In the meantime, I fitted the thwarts. Number 3 fit about perfect but 1 and 5 needed a lot of fitting and only minor fitting for 2 and 4. 
 
A discerning eye may notice the small split in the first thwart where my carving of the notch got away from me. I glued it together and since the photo was taken have sanded it and it is now unnoticeable. I also added a small scratch built piece to the gunwale at the fore side cleat - more to come on what that will be once the cap rails are installed. 
 
I then turned my attention to the oars. I carved and sanded the blades and was really pleased with the result. 

Then, over confidently I carved and sanded the loom and body. I struggled with consistency when saving the corners of the oars. In some places I slipped and went too deep and other times my angle wasn’t right or I was varying the thickness of the shaving across the length of the loom and body. Sanding helped and in the end they look WAY more consistent than I expected but not as uniform I would desire. I need more practice and next time I make oars especially in a different scale, I will practice before jumping in. 
Finally, I must admit another fault or mistake - not UNDERSTANDING the directions before proceeding. I knew I needed too and I thought I knew what I was doing but alas, when carving the handles, I approached them like the loom and body. I shaved the corners to make them octagonal and then proceeded to sand them. This is fine for rounding square stock but they were too small and too thin. I ended up with a tapered handle on one and I broke two handles from the loom before figured out my error finally in time for the fifth oar. So, to anyone reading this who will build the dory, remember to simply cut the rectangular handle to be square (as written and photographed in the instructions) and then sand the corners to be round. Couldn’t be easier and my fifth turned out great and it was easy! 

I rebuilt the two broken handles using a whittled and sanded toothpick and some superglue.