ccoyle

Very nice work, Danny. I have the MV Schwan II kit in my stash.

End of day 4.

That is very, very nicely done indeed!

So, I was in the process of gluing up the interlocking parts of the false deck & hull formers and having a devil of a time trying to get the forward false deck pieces to snug up properly. Then I noticed that there were two deck tabs that had no corresponding slot in the longitudinal former. So first I checked the instructions ... ... and yep, there's supposed to be a slot. But, here's a shot of the deck tab, deflected about 2 mm down, and there's no slot there. Since the deck was already partially glued in, I had to use a ball cutter in my Dremel to remove the tabs. Not a big deal, but kinda strange.

Hi, Chris. I checked out the site, too. As others have pointed out, it's a new site with no established reputation, and they sell (or at least list) knock-off merchandise. That's enough for us to pull the welcome mat for them at MSW and advise our members to take their hard-earned cash elsewhere. But thanks for bringing the site to our attention! Cheers!

I agree with the previous posts -- that is a very respectable first model. Welcome to the forum!

There's no denying, though, that having the plywood pre-cut by laser is the easiest way to cut the stuff. 😉

And here's the hull skeleton after another evening's work. The kit is designed with pretty tight fit tolerances, as evidenced by my experience with the previously-mentioned misaligned false keel component, which was by only off by about 0.5 mm. Before gluing in bulkheads willy-nilly, I decided to check whether the misaligned part would really affect the positioning of the last bulkhead (#24). It did, so I had to remove a little sliver of wood with a chisel to get the bulkhead to slot in correctly. The end of the false keel itself will be covered over by additional parts later. After correcting that bit, I glued in the bulkheads. The parts have their numbers laser-etched on them, so I removed the entire set from their plywood sheet and prepped them all, so that I could do the gluing of the whole set at one go. Laser-etched tick-marks on the outer edges of mated parts allow for precise alignment. The false deck is only dry-fitted at this point. As Chuck S. will likely attest, this is essentially a card model done in plywood. The construction method is the same as seen in many full-hull card designs. Cheers!

You are off to a strong start.

Hi, Kurtis. As a wee correction, 74s were generally considered 3rd-rates. You are correct about the guns -- heavier guns were carried on the lower deck. There wasn't a standard for the size of guns though, and they varied from one navy to another and over the course of the ships' histories. As a rule of thumb, 74s would have carried 24-32 pounders on the lower gun deck, 18-24 pounders on the upper gun deck, and 6-12 pounders on the forecastle and quarterdecks, although these were often replaced by carronades once those came into use. Cheers!

I can't speak to the quality of Panart's plans, but Cornwall Model Boats has an excellent reputation within our community. Model Shipways has the Dusek kit on sale now.

Congratulations on a superb model!

Very nicely done!

I don't know if you have your heart set on a Grand Banker, but have you checked out the new zulu and fifie kits from Vanguard Models? They're designed for beginners and incorporate all the latest design features.

Either of those will work, as will a number of other glues such as contact cement. Personally, for such decorations I would use a non-water-based glue such as the contact cement or spray adhesive, simply because water-based glues will tend to warp the paper, though if the strips are small then that shouldn't be much of a problem. I would probably also seal the paper parts with some matte clear spray to give them a bit of protection.

A schooner with sleek hull lines (i.e. not bluff-bowed) is a great beginner project, but I think that the Amati kit is in 1/100 scale if I recall correctly. Some modelers find that a fiddly scale to work in for wood models. As a new modeler, you would probably find 1/64 scale or larger easier to handle.

Well, here we are back at it. I decided to skip doing a turn on a card model and instead roll with the wood momentum and go straight to Wütender Hund (hereafter referred to as "WH"). I won't do an unboxing here, as I did a complete review of this kit in the reviews section. It is the first wood offering from the Polish firm of Shipyard, who are well-known for their excellent line of tallship card models. Clare Hess is currently working on a very similar cog model, also from Shipyard -- although its name is different, it is more or less the card version of this kit. So, I didn't make very much progress on Day 1, getting only as far as removing the longitudinal profile former and gluing up the parts that form a false keel. I noticed after the glue had already set that one of the parts is slightly misaligned, so I may have to debond that part and reposition it. One thing to watch out for on Polish kits is that left and right parts are marked L and P, not L and R. L does in fact indicate left, same as in English; to remember that P is right, I always think of it as the Greek letter rho, then it makes perfect sense. As you can see, the box is quite large -- too big for my modeling area. And the exciting work of Day 1. The cutting mat is a little less than 12" wide, so you have an idea of how big the finished model will be. TTFN!

Craig, my paternal great-great-grandfather was born and raised in Gaffney here in the Upstate, but was living in Mississippi when the "Late Unpleasantness" broke out. He enlisted in the 9th Mississippi, which was training in the Florida panhandle when he was discharged for "debility." He made his way back to SC and enlisted in the 18th South Carolina; when the army reorganized in 1862, his company elected to join the Palmetto Sharpshooters, with whom he served from Frayser's Farm until The Wilderness, where he was captured and afterwards spent a year as a guest of the Federal Government at Fort Delaware. My maternal 3x-great-grandfather was in the 39th Georgia, captured and paroled at Vicksburg, then fought in the Atlanta campaign until he was wounded (permanently crippled in one arm) and discharged. Ironically, Confederate Memorial Day is still a government holiday in SC, so my wife got this past Monday off, but not me, and she hasn't got a drop of southern blood in her -- unless we're talking about southern Norway. Back to the topic, though -- the Israelis quickly mastered the art of armored desert warfare, and their tactics and skill made their Shermans more than a match for the Egyptian T-34/85s they encountered in the earlier conflicts.

Reminds me of an old Avalon Hill simulation I used to have, Arab-Israeli Wars.

Hello, Kenna. I think it's wonderful that you are wanting to undertake such a task with your dad (none of my three children, all grown now, ever got bit by the modeling bug). A first modeling project may depend on what you hope to accomplish with the project, i.e. do you just want to learn what it's like working with wood, or do you want to build a scaled-down galleon? For first projects, I often recommend kits by Midwest Products (out of production now, but still common on eBay), but if you are looking for techniques that might be useful on a larger project, have a look at the kits produced by Chesapeake Light Craft (see ad banner on home page); their kits are built in the same manner as their full-size boats, e.g. stitch-and-glue, which is something that might work on a large model. If you want to try your hand at a small galleon, then there are many such kits that might fit the bill, such as the Golden Hind offered by Dusek Ship Kits (they also have an ad banner on the home page). If you can find a kit that has good plans and perhaps even 1:1 parts drawings, you can get those scaled up to the size you need at copy shops that have the equipment for reproducing architectural drawings. Other folks on the forum here are more qualified to handle your questions about making a sailing model -- certain modifications are of course necessary to make the model sail and handle properly. Best of luck on your project!

Two of the MK guys are members here, Dmitriy (DPK) and Evgeney (greenstone). Shoot them a PM if you run into any issues.

THE BIG REVEAL Okay, final thoughts on this project along with some nice photos. I bought this kit initially because I wanted something fast and relatively easy to build. The "fast" part didn't work out as planned, thanks to life getting in the way. The "easy" part, well ... ... the hull, for the most part was easy to build, and the folks at MK have been innovative in designing hull structures that go together well and lock up tight. I loved the laser-cut planking -- some guys dig spiling, and others just like to put things together. I'm in the latter category. 1/72 scale did prove to be a challenge in a few instances. It's remarkable how big a difference there can be in the ease or difficulty of making a particular assembly in 1/72 scale versus even 1/64. The finished model looks really sharp and looks good either painted or left in the natural. The wood and metal parts are top-shelf. Plans are good, and directions were mostly clear despite the few inevitable mysteries of translation. The rigging line, on the other hand, gave me fits, resulting in rigging tasks that took far longer than they should have. I understand the compromises that must be made in order to make a kit profitable, but the rigging line is definitely the fly in this kit's ointment. I hope that the MK boys will give some thought to looking at alternative sources for rigging line. The guys at MK are very responsive to a builder's needs -- they get an A+ for customer relations. Overall, I give this kit 4 out of five stars, only because of the rigging line, otherwise I can give the kit a hearty recommendation -- just replace the rigging line. 😉 I'm really looking forward to seeing what Evgeniy and his crew bring to market in the near future. And now for pictures! Thanks, Master Korabel, for bringing this little gem to market!

Nice unboxing! The quality of the parts looks good, as does the laser cutting. BTW, some of my ancestors were Dutch, from Harderwijk, Gelderland. They emigrated to some place called "Nieuw Amsterdam' in about 1650. 😉

Great review. The role of the cruiser in protecting trade in the colonial era is further developed in the Town-class cruiser book I recently reviewed. In the treaty era, Britain especially had to make compromises in naval construction based on tonnage limitations and the need to patrol a far-flung empire.

Sounds about like any DIY project! Well, for me at least.