BobG

This should be an amazing model when you finish her, Mike! That stern fin is wild!

Beautiful work, Mike! Can't wait to see what orphan you adopt next!

Those are some great looking lobsters. Where did you get them? Do you have a source for realistic fish as well?

I won't camphor but I'll chamfer while you bevel, Glenn! 🤣 Well, I for one appreciate your thorough explanation. Of course, I'm not one to mince words either and love to write as well! Beautiful planking, by-the-way. The more I watch your build, the more I'm tempted to grab my Flirt off the shelf...or wait on the Sphinx....??

Thanks Don, Grant and Harry for stopping by. I always look forward to following your excellent builds too. I'm afraid this is going to be slow going for a while while I figure things out as I go along and I'm thinking of starting another build to fill in the gaps and add some variety to my modeling at the same time. My wife and I are heading over to San Francisco next week for a week to celebrate my 75th birthday. I'm a bit shocked wondering how all those years got by so quickly when I think about it! 😳 We love SF and we'll be visiting our son and going to a couple of SF Giants baseball games while we are there. We're big Giants fans and the they have the best record in baseball currently. We plan to go to the Van Gogh exhibit, spend an evening at a jazz club and maybe take in the Maritime Museum as well. We'll also being enjoying the great variety of cuisine that you can find in all the wonderful, little, neighborhood restaurants and we'll certainly get plenty of exercise walking up and down the steep hills as we poke around the city. Cheers!

My next model is going to be a tough choice. I'm just easily attracted to a wide variety of boats and ships and other models. Thanks Hake! I'll see how the online translator works for me but, if that fails, I'll ask for help from the MSW francophones.

Absolutely magnificent! As good as it gets!

Looks awesome, John!

Well, it's been a crazy 1 1/2 years since I last sat down at my small, modeling desk and did any work on the Pen Duick but, after spending some time cleaning up my work area and reorganizing things a bit, I actually got back to working on this model. I've been looking for some good sources of information about the rigging and fittings on the Pen Duick since the Artesania Latina photos and instructions leave a lot to be desired. Luckily, I found some old French model boat magazines, Modèle Réduit de Bateau, on eBay France that had articles about building the Pen Duick with many helpful photos particularly of the deck and various fittings. Of course, I con't read French but I can use an online translator to help me out. I'll be referring to these magazines to help me better see and understand the deck fittings and the rigging. It's amazing what you can find on the internet if you look hard enough! I decided to try and make some hinges for the forward hatch and the skylights. I thought they would add a bit of nice detail to them. I used some brass strip 0.3 mm x 2.0 mm and about 8 mm in length before trimming the ends and bending them to fit. After gluing them to the hatch and the skylights with medium CA, I snipped tiny pieces of 0.75 mm copper wire and glued them to the hinges to simulate the hinge pins. It was time consuming and tedious working under my magnifier lamp but I'm happy with how they turned out. I plan to study the magazine photos some more and then add more of the deck fittings and deck furniture while beginning to tackle the rigging. With the help of a couple of books I have, Hand, Reef and Steer by Tom Cunliffe and Historic Ship Models by Wolfram zu Monfeld, I hope to be able to figure out the rigging close enough for this model. I had fun today and I'm looking forward to making more progress on this model. Thanks to all for stopping by.

Welcome Benjamin! You've found the right place to discuss ship modeling and to ask any questions you may have. Garmish was the first place I ever went skiing. I was only 5 years old and my family was living in Stuttgart since my father was stationed there with the US Army. That was decades ago but I still remember the beautiful mountains in the area. Good luck. I look forward to your build log.

I think that will be important to do so your planking matches up nicely at the bow also.

Very nice work, Travis, looks great!

Don't worry about it, Alan. I read your comment about flags and it is totally fine. It's obvious to me that you were just asking a question and not being trying to be critical. I think your intention may have gotten misunderstood. We're all thrilled with what Chris has been doing and with his smashing success.

Pretty darn good if you ask me!

I'm super happy with what you're doing. It's fantastic! The way your models seem to be selling like hot cakes is a testament to how modelers feel about what you are doing. 👋

I like those very much as well. Maybe I'm just too cautious! I'll have to give that a try being more aggressive!! I noticed that you included etched lines on the bulkheads on the Lady Isabella Zulu model to help guide the fairing process. That seems like it will be helpful.

Well, I can't argue with that!!

Nice work on the fairing, Glenn. Fairing is one task that I'm never 100% confident about doing. I never seem to know exactly if I'm taking off too much or too little even when checking with a batten. For example, I did it as carefully as I knew how on my Medway Longboat and still ended up with a slight bulge and dip near the port bow once I started planking. Getting both sides faired exactly symmetrical is not easy for me either. I was able to sand it out but it made the planking pretty thin at that point. That's just me though, I'm sure more experienced modelers do just fine.

I'm quite happy with the clear acetate stand and I appreciate it being included in the kits. I bought the beautiful stand that Chuck has available for his Medway Longboat which comes with personalized engraving. I think it's gorgeous. Chris could possibly consider designing some custom stands for his models at some point as well. I know Chuck's custom stands have been popular with modelers building his Syren kits. Just a thought... I would also purchase flags if they were made of high quality materials. Natural looking flags of the correct era and the right scale are hard to find. The glossy, stiff, paper flags that come with a lot of kits are awful, IMO. Appropriate flags for the Vanguard models could perhaps be offered as an optional purchase just like the sails.

Beautiful job on the copper plating, Rob! I don't like those tedious, repetitive tasks like that either....treenailing comes to mind also!

That's what I was thinking also. 👍

Nice technique for aligning the backstays!

Wonderful job, Ras, I'll grab a beer and make a toast to your fine model as well!

Grant, I was wondering what you were currently building and I just found your log. This is an unusual and interesting model. I love it that you have such a diversity of models you like to build. You're becoming a pro with that airbrush too. Perfection! I'll be following along. Good luck!

She looks absolutely fantastic, Paul!