ccoyle

I have a soft spot for the Tribals ever since I built Revell's old Ark Royal + Ashanti combo way, waaaaay back in the day!

Yikes. This is one reason why I stick to card models. 😬

I agree. Each method of construction has its own particular learning curve. I started with POB and have attempted two solid hulls, neither of which I was entirely happy with (never finished either model). One of our members, Chuck Passaro, has written a couple of practicums based on Model Shipways solid-hull kits -- here's a link to the one based on Sultana. You might find some useful tips in there. Over the years, a couple of MSW members have finished Smuggler. It makes a very handsome finished model, so I hope you will press on through the difficult patches. Cheers!

Outstanding work, Greg!

Sadly, it doesn't take a whole lot of manhandling to make it quite a bit less rigid!

First night's construction.

I buy most of my models direct from the publishers in Poland, with the exception of HMV kits which I can purchase here in the US through Amazon (or through this website). I have purchased through WAK, Orlik, and Halinski, all without any problems.

Yesterday I stumbled across a card model site that is new to me, called Kartonowki. As the name suggests, it's a Polish site, and there is no option for viewing it in English (unless your web browser can do so). I have always said that the Poles must have a gene that makes them natural-born card model masters, and this site's gallery (nearly 5000 entries) supports my theory. Check it out if you have time -- you'll be amazed!

Construction begins with a bit of prep work. The parts sheets have been separated and treated with matte clear spray. The laser-cut billets have been given a coat of shellac and are now drying, stacked between sheets of wax paper and weighted down to help prevent curling. A trip to Hobby Lobby and the hardware store was made to procure some paint and contact cement. Now comes the fun of mixing edge/touch-up colors. As I said earlier, there are only three main colors: a sort of plum brown, a light gray for the undersides, and an aqua for the interior. I've started with the aqua. See those two big splotches on the printed color swatch? Good! Those aren't the final color. Hopefully what is far less noticeable are the eight dots in the lower right corner of the swatch, representing eight attempts at matching the printed color. I think I will call the last dot a match, since it is very close, and any more tinkering is as likely to mess up the paint batch as improve it. Within the confines of the finished interior, it shouldn't stand out, and that is the goal after all. BTW, the brown and gray blotches are simply samples of unmixed base colors to see which shades to begin with -- I haven't mixed those yet. Cheers!

I'm on a bit of a personal roll here, so I'm going to ride the wave while it lasts. For my next project, I'm going to take on the 1/33 scale Ki-43-I Hei published by Orlik of Poland. This is another Lukasz Fuczek design -- you might recall that he designed the Curtiss Hawk 75 kit I gave up on a while back. Nevertheless, having finished one of Lukasz's other designs (Yak-3), I have decided to give him another go. This kit ticks several boxes for me: I have the laser-cut frames set and a canopy. I don't yet have any completed models of Japanese aircraft. It's a monoplane -- no complicated rigging (I need a break from rigging, whether ships or planes). It has only a few colors needing to be matched for edge coloring. The Ki-43 Hayabusa (Peregrine Falcon) was the Japanese Army Air Force's primary fighter at the onset of hostilities with the west in 1941, having replaced Nakajima's earlier Ki-27 (Allied code name "Nate"). The Ki-43 was built for maneuverability, which it excelled at, but had no armor or self-sealing fuel tanks and was armed with only a pair of machine guns. Once Allied pilots learned not to get into turning engagements with an Oscar and to instead use boom-and-zoom tactics against them (and other nimble Japanese types), the Oscar's days as a premier fighter were numbered. Despite this, it was produced right up until 1945. Many were expended in kamikaze attacks. 5919 of all marks were built; the Ki-43-I Hei variant was the first to carry two 12.7 mm (0.5 in.) machine guns. (By Stumanusa - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9430904Photo courtesy of Wikimedia) So, there's your intro. Construction to start soon -- stay tuned!

Okay, here she is! I had a few issues: I started with the port-side laser-cut railings, and it shows. The starboard side looks better. The awning is optional; I chose to add it. I like awnings, and this is the first kit I've done that actually includes the awning, not just its supports. You'll note that the mast has no rigging. I meant well -- even had all of the relevant lines attached to the mast. But then came trying to belay them. Yeah, that was an absolute booger, and I decided that for the sake of my mental health, this was a detail I could live without. Sorry! You antipodean purists may notice that the bell is on the wrong side of the mast. There simply wasn't enough room between the mast and the forward vent, so this captain had his crew shift the bell aft. Here's some pictures -- my little cell phone camera is not the best at taking close-ups of tiny subjects. Hope you enjoyed this little excursion into the card modeling world. Now, off to think about my next project!

The only one I regularly check out is papermodelers.com. A number of MSW members are also members there. There are also quite a few over in Europe, as you may well imagine; some of them welcome posts in English, even if that isn't the official language of the forum. I don't visit these except for when I'm looking for information on a specific kit, 'cause hey, there are only so many hours in a day!

I agree with the gorgeous part, but the Yaks are fairly common in the card-modeling world, as well as on the warbird circuit.

Frank Joseph Henry Gardiner was born in 1942 in England. His works have sold at auction from $149 up to $2017. So, did you get a good deal?

Tonight's progress: funnel guys attached (to stack only, not to deck), bridge added, and one of the pesky cowl vents completed (one more to go). The vents are printed black on the inside, but all of the photos I've seen show red inside the cowls, so I painted red over the black, though it doesn't show up well in the photo. I have deviated slightly from the construction sequence shown in the diagrams -- working on superstructure elements from the middle towards the edges, so that the guys won't be in the way of anything that needs gluing. Space is very tight in some areas. BTW, I did not elect to use the kit's optional bridge interior elements, which include interior walls, engine telegraph, compass, and wheel -- just too many tiny pieces for my liking. Sorry!

Yes. And they're fairly sturdy for such spindly structures.

I was able to find some photos that show where the turnbuckles (bottlescrews) terminate on the superstructure deck, so I made some pinholes in which to glue the guys and then glued the deck onto the superstructure. The stack is also complete, though only dry-fitted in this photo; I will attach its guys before gluing it down permanently.

I agree -- the final product is very nice!

Hey, all you antipodeans: Before I go too much further with this build, I need to pinpoint where the turnbuckles for the funnel guys terminate on the superstructure deck. The rigging diagram is a bit fuzzy on this point, and I haven't been able to find any pictures online that clearly show that area. Anybody know of any? Thanks!

Step 7 complete -- forward deck furniture: winch, vent, anchors, anchor davits. The winch has 21(!) pieces. 🥴 Today, my stupid tweezers launched one of the anchors -- TWICE. 🤬 Happily, I was able to find it both times. Tweezers launches don't always have happy endings.

If you have an Amazon account, you can get HMV stuff here, with free shipping.

I still have all of the N-gauge track and rolling stock from my youth, packed away in a box in the fading hope that one of my kids might one day be interested.

Now finished with Step 6, lockers and gallows. The particular gallows (correct term?) shown below was a bit of a challenge. Again, the kit includes printed posts and crossbeam, but I replaced these with wood. The two bowed pieces are from the laser-cut detail set. The set included a hook as well, but it was tiny and kind of clunky looking. No matter -- my stupid tweezers tips slipped and flung the tiny part into another dimension. I tried cutting out the printed hook, which was a fruitless endeavor. The solution? A tiny strip of curled paper soaked in thin CA. Hard to see it in this photo. Heck, hard to see it period. And because David likes something in the photo for scale, here's a pic featuring one of my digits. No, I did not used forced perspective -- my finger was actually that close and the model really is that tiny. 😉 Next up: THE WINCH! 😮

An observation I made last night while working on the life jacket lockers is that the locations for these are not marked on the printed kit parts. Typically on a card model like this one, the locations of things like lockers are marked by white spaces, which is why we card modelers call this part of the construction sequence "killing white spaces." But if you look closely at the model, you can see the uninterrupted printed coamings around the various deck structures where the lockers will be placed -- no white spaces. I presume that the life jacket lockers are required by the ship's current status as an excursion vessel; I'm guessing the way the kit is printed was purposefully done to allow a modeler the option of building Waratah more as she would have looked as a working vessel, e.g. sans life jacket lockers. Another nice touch about the kit that I don't think I have mentioned yet is that all of the printed parts needed for particular sub-assemblies are grouped together inside printed boxes on the parts sheets. This eliminates much of the hunting for parts that is required for most kits.

Thanks! I daren't mess up, or I may catch it from you antipodeans! 😉