ccoyle

Learning as I go... Lesson #1: Two-part epoxy mixed with filler to a "jam consistency" pretty quickly progresses to "modeling clay" consistency. Lesson #2: The working time for mixed two-part epoxy isn't very long. Lesson #3: The amount of two-part epoxy needed to glue up ten planking strakes has only enough working time to do five strakes. Ask me how I know. 😬 Lesson #4: My hands must be size extra-large -- large-size latex gloves barely fit. Lesson #5: Disposable latex gloves do not breath, like, at all. When I took them off, sweat literally poured out of them. Can't wait to see what I learn next! 🙄

Yep. Yes, I can, but can you provide a link rather than have me hunt it down? Thanks!

Okay, far enough along to justify an update. The build sequence for most card model airplanes starts with the cockpit, but for some reason this one starts with the wings. First, the internal formers. You might think that laser cut parts like this should fit perfectly, but they usually don't. Some minor trimming here and there was necessary. The key is to get the dimensions of the internal structure matched to those of the skins before one starts gluing the latter parts on. Skins on next. Each is one large part, so there's a lot of glue that must first be applied, followed by quickly positioning the part. This is helped out by forming the sharp curve in the leading edge before attaching the skin. Now comes the cockpit. Internal formers and seat come first. There's a rectangular part with four holes in the middle of the seat back. I have no idea if it's in the correct position. The diagrams were unclear on this bit, and I couldn't find any P-36 cockpit photos online that showed this particular part (even if one does find such a photo online, there's no guarantee that the seat in the photo is either period correct or correct for the H-75). Interior cockpit skins with their various bits -- radio, throttle quadrants, etc. Right skin on. The control stick consists of 14 separate parts -- bleah! And finally, a couple of shots of the finished cockpit. Unlike many kits I have worked on, this kit did not include optional parts to allow for glazing the instrument panel. It does, though, include parts for building the two fuselage-mounted .30 caliber machine guns, but they are pretty basic structures. I'm going to omit them. That's all for now!

The phrase "model ship" is a little vague -- the kind of model ship your dad saw may help determine what sort of model would best suit your purpose. Can you tell us more about what you're looking for?

Here's nearly $200 worth of tools and consumable supplies. 😳 A bit more than what's usually required for one of my card models, but then again I can't paddle around in a card model. (The epoxy, metering pumps, and fillers in the back were included with the kit.) The canoe has five strakes per side, each made in two halves which are joined by a puzzle joint. The parts are plainly labeled. CNC cutting leaves little tabs on the plywood parts that need to be removed -- just like in many model kits! While I'm waiting for materials to set up a temporary workbench, I've been removing some tabs and giving the plywood edges a light sanding to smooth away some of the fuzziness. Here's some cleaned up half-strakes atop one of the temporary bulkheads that will be used during the construction process. That's it for now.

Great job!

Oh, ho! Another potential convert to the Dark Side!

Hi, JEB. I saw your Flying Fish in the gallery, and it came out very nice indeed, in spite of all of the kit's shortcomings (and there are many). I actually wrote a pretty scathing review of that kit for the old Dry Dock Models forum that went down the water closet of history when that site folded.* The kits coming out today are lightyears ahead of those old Corel kits in both quality and design philosophy. Cheers! (*Now there's a bit of history to curdle the nose hairs of some of our newcomers. Dry Dock Models, or DDM to most of us, was the go-to ship modeling forum back in the days before MSW. But, unlike MSW who are owned and backed by the NRG, DDM was privately owned. One day, for reasons not entirely known, the owner just pulled the plug on the operation. All the content was gone -- kinda like our Big Crash of 2013, but without the intent to start things up again.)

Nope, not building in the kitchen! Right now I'm still in the process of rounding up supplies and setting up shop. Made my first trip to Home Depot. The build process uses A LOT of disposable items, e.g. chip brushes, sandpaper, etc.

In case you were wondering (or maybe I missed it somewhere earlier), this type of rig is called a spritsail in English.

You and me both, brother!

Ahoy, friends! One of the things I have had on my bucket list for a long time is to build a boat, one of those "hole in the water into which one pours money" things. My choice of boat was based on these criteria: light enough for one person to carry able to carry me and some fishing gear suitable for first-time builder car-top portable small enough to store in the garage good on-the-water performance reasonably cheap. This past winter, I came into a small inheritance and also happened to move to within a couple of miles of not one but two publicly accessible lakes here in SC, so the time seemed right. The Sassafras 12 canoe kit from Chesapeake Light Craft (CLC) ticked all the boxes, so I ordered one. I didn't have time to get started last winter, since we had just bought a new house and moved into it, with all of the painting and landscaping that entails. Then the miserably humid deep south summer set in, so no building then, either. Now the weather has cooled, and the missus has made nebulous threats and implied that vaguely defined harm may befall me if I don't get the kit boxes out of the way, so it must be time to start! So, what does the kit include? Box #1 includes all of the parts: CNC-cut planks in okoume plywood, permanent bulkheads, temporary bulkheads, sapele decks, rails, wire, center thwart, seat, back band, and fiberglass sheathing. CLC calls the construction method 'lap stitch' -- it is a combination of lapstrake planking and stitch-and-glue assembly. Box #2 includes the nasty, liquid goodies: 2-part epoxy (with dispensing pumps) and fillers. The instructions run to 116 pages and combine text, photos, and diagrams. I've read through them once, and they seem pretty thorough. Hopefully, when all is said and done, I'll have something that looks like this ... ... rather than this. Cross your fingers! First things to do are read the manual again, make a shopping list of tools and consumables, and get a work area set up in the garage. Cheers!

It was not uncommon, even well into the 20th century, for civilian ships to be taken into military service and vice versa. The naval cutter design began life as a smuggler before being adopted by various navies for inshore duties. It would not surprise me at all if one were sold out of the service for a second career.

BTW, for anyone interested specifically in Midway, I found this analysis very engaging. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd8_vO5zrjo&t=2s

Nice -- quite the logical follow-up to your F3Fs! I have the Halinski 1/33 scale card version of the F4F. It's an older model that lacks the usual top-notch Halinski weathering, but I'm still reluctant to build it, mainly due to the need for building the nightmarish landing gear assembly essentially from scratch.

Good call with the boxwood. I have the Victory Models HMS Fly, one of the very first examples of that kit, purchased and started back in 2006. It's still sitting on a shelf, waiting to be finished. I confess that one of the reasons that I'm not particularly motivated to finish her is that after I got all the walnut planking done, I eventually decided I didn't much like the look of it -- both the dark wood and my not-especially-good planking job. Turns out I like models done in lighter woods better. Oh, well -- live and learn. I may finish her off as a hull model -- someday. The financially prudent part of me doesn't want to let a $300 kit go unfinished, but my modeler's heart knows that I won't be entirely happy with the finished product.

Great job, Harry! Nice presentation, too. Cheers!

That is almost certainly an example of Artesania Latina's Harvey kit. Plans should be very easy to find.

This is typical for plans found in kits -- something to take note of. Looking for them in inboard profiles can also help.

Tosh! Most of us here were once in our early 20's.* Fly is a great model, and at some point in the future I may actually finish mine (started in 2006). *At some point in history only dimly now recalled and receding rapidly into the murky mists of time.

Welcome! I had a teacher friend who did a unit on The Cruel Sea. He asked me to do a Flower-class corvette for him, so I did the 1/100 scale card version from Modelik. It was really a bit over my head for my skill level at the time, but I got it done. As much as I love Caldercraft, I think there are some more fool-proof kits available today, thanks to advances in design and higher standards for instructions. After you read the suggested thread, have a look at some of the offerings from Vanguard Models or Master Korabel, for starters, and also search for build logs with the words "first wooden ship" (or similar) to see what other beginners are tackling. Cheers!

Welcome back! Vic is looking very good.

Looking very good at this point!

Done!

Welcome to my abbreviated build log for the Curtiss Mohawk! Since MSW is dedicated to ship modeling, I will not be cluttering up the message traffic by updating this log as regularly as I would for a ship model, just so y'all know. The Mohawk was the RAF designation for the export version of Curtiss' successful P-36 Hawk design. This 1/33 scale card model kit was deigned by Lukasz Fuczek and published in 2020 by the Polish firm of Answer. The kit consists of four pages of parts and 2.5 pages of diagrams. There are no English instructions. The kit depicts an aircraft of No. 1 Operational Training Unit of the Indian Air Force in 1942. Since I can't read Polish, I'm not entirely clear on what variant of the P-36 the model is supposed to represent, but the text does say "H-75A-3." That doesn't seem very likely, considering that all but two of that variant went to France. More likely the kit depicts an H-75A-4, a large number of which were diverted to England and, being deemed inadequate for operations in the ETO, were shipped off to India, where they fought primarily in the Burma theater. So rapid were developments in aviation in the late 1930s that the P-36 was already obsolete by the time war broke out. Nevertheless, the P-36 and its variants served admirably wherever they happened to be. Especially to be noted is that H-75s of the French Armée de l'Air accounted for roughly a third of all French aerial victories during the Battle of France while making up only 12.6% of France's single-seat fighter force. French H-75 pilots claimed 230 kills for the loss of 29 aircraft. I have a soft spot for the P-36, because it is an interwar aircraft with remarkably clean, well-balanced looks. I often marvel at how these early all-metal monoplanes and their more glamorous successors, like Curtiss' own P-40 series, enjoyed only a decade in the spotlight before being eclipsed by jets. But what a moment in the spotlight it was! Enjoy!